


Tasty Morsels

by LisaMack



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:02:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 127,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LisaMack/pseuds/LisaMack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not sure where this story came from but here it is... The rating is for later chapters ...</p><p>Jason and Nathaniel run into a woman that is nearly dead in the alley behind their work. Why did she come to St. Louis? And what might St. Louis mean for her future?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She packed just the essentials into her plain black duffle bag then risked a second and third glance around the room. She wanted desperately to pack everything up carefully into boxes and to ship them somewhere or better yet to load them up into a truck and take them all with her, but she reminded herself one more time that she couldn’t. IF she ever got the chance to come back she would. God she hoped that she had a chance to come back and retrieve all of the contents of this apartment because this was all she had to remember them… To remember her life… The life she had before…

With a harsh swipe across her right and then left cheeks to dry her tears she forced herself out of those thoughts. She couldn’t allow herself to wallow in the past because her future was so uncertain and hazy. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, especially right now, if she had no future to look forward to, then her past really didn’t matter. Who would really care where she came from if she had nowhere that she was going? Hell she herself would have been happy enough to forget about any plans for the future, but something from her past kept eating away at her. When she was a small child she remembered falling asleep to her Daddy reading her fairytales and telling her that she was his princess and that she was going to get to live happily ever after. She knew that she wasn’t a child and that the idea of a ‘happily ever after’ wasn’t truly meant to be, but what was happening to her right now was something that she absolutely refused to acknowledge as being something that she was destined to actually have happen to her or to define the rest of her life. She wanted more and if only a part of what her parents had told her was true then she truly did deserve more, but how could she attain it?

She moved out of the bedroom into the main living area that was an open layout inhabiting a living room slash office along with a small kitchen area and she barely stifled the sob that bubbled into her chest. It had taken her years to make this space her own and to make this small apartment feel like her home. She had repainted the walls almost once a year over the last five years until she finally felt like she had gotten it right this time. Her living room area was a very pale grey color that almost looked white so that it didn’t compete with woodland themed paintings she had acquired to put on two of the walls. The black couch and entertainment center slash bookshelf unit in the room tied in quite nicely with the black and chrome appliances and cabinetry in her kitchen. She loved how it all had come together so seamlessly and without any effort on her part at all. Hell even her pots and pans that were hanging above the kitchen’s island matched the black and chrome theme. The office area was small, but it too fit like a glove in the color scheme of the largest area of her apartment.

Would she ever get to use those pots or pans again to test out a new recipe? Would she ever get to write down what she thought was the next brilliant idea for a gourmet meal down on her computer? She patted her notebook laptop in her black leather messenger bag thinking; at least I have you to jot my random thoughts on. That thought made her frown and tear up because she still didn’t know where those random thoughts might lead except for away. Away from here…  
Her apartment… This isn’t home anymore she tried to remind herself as new tears welled up into her eyes. Tonight she had survived the closest thing that she could equate to hell on Earth and she knew that she had to run. She had to run away from it and hide because if it found her again… Well she couldn’t even fathom what might happen to her if he caught up to her again. Usually her being alive should have been enough, but how could she ever try to explain to anyone about who she was now and how she got to this point?

They would blame her for it. Obviously she brought this upon herself somehow, so why shouldn’t they blame her for it as well? She had helped to create the hell she was going to live in from now on, so she was willing to accept her fate. Well not completely but she knew she couldn’t stay here so whatever happened she knew she had to accept it and live it one day at a time. If she couldn’t do that, then she told herself that she should just end it all right now. If she didn’t think that she couldn’t live through this then she probably couldn’t even attempt to try to live through anything else this path of life had laid out before her. There was no point in trying to pretend because there was no one left to disappoint other than herself and yet…

No, she told herself. Tonight was not going to be the night that she was finally going to give in and just end it all. She had lived through the worst of it, she was sure of that. Or at least she sincerely hoped that if the God she had been raised to believe in and pray to was real that He had put her through the worst trial of her life because she wasn’t sure that she could endure any worse. That being said, she would not end her life just yet. Tonight she wanted to live, tonight she wanted to survive, and tonight she wanted to be a part of this world. So tonight she would run, tonight she would hide… Tonight she would willing start a life on the run… A life apart from the rest of the ‘normal’ world.

At the door to the outside of the apartment she gave the room another once over as she hefted the straps of her duffle bag onto her shoulder. She mourned the loss of these material goods and felt stupid because she knew deep down that things could be replaced, but they still felt like they were relevant to her life. As she turned her back on them she felt like she was abandoning a small part of herself in this space, like she was deserting a part her soul while she ran to points unknown.  
In the hallway she took in a deep breath and sighed out a loud breath of regret. She nearly sobbed again, but as she took in another deep breath she caught a scent that caused her to pause. He wasn’t on her floor, at least not yet, but she felt him coming closer and could smell him making his way up the stairs so she ran towards the elevator at the opposite end of the hallway from the stairs.

One of her neighbors, someone she had never taken the time to get to know over the last five years held the door to the elevator for her. The smile she gave him along with the quiet “Thanks” were the most heartfelt sentiments of gratitude that she had ever felt during her relatively short life. Her neighbor gave her a quick nod and uncomfortable smile in return which reminded her that she had to play a part right now. She was no longer apart of her neighbor’s world and once she got to the cab waiting for her outside she had to admit that she would never be a part of it ever again.

She and her neighbor easily parted ways in the lobby, but she had to force herself not to run out the doors to the yellow cab waiting at the curb. Once she opened the door to the apartment building and made her approach, the cab driver jumped to attention and rushed to the trunk of his cab. She wasn’t sure if he sensed her urgency or maybe if he sensed something else, but she was thankful that she didn’t seem to have to voice to him that time was of the essence before she was in the back of the cab and he was hitting the peddle to the metal to get them out of the area she had once considered home.

Just before they turned the corner towards what she thought was her freedom, she heard a loud thump against the side of the car. The driver instinctively slowed down thinking that he had hit a pedestrian or something worse, but she knew better. She knew that if they stopped now that she would never be able to get away again.

“Don’t stop!” She screamed even as the taxi slowed down. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars, just don’t stop! Please! Just don’t stop!”

The driver spared a glance to check if she was for real or not, so she held up one of the bundles of cash she had stashed in her messenger bag to prove her word. The driver then nodded and she tried to relax in her seat but she couldn’t help but chance a look back. She knew it was wrong but as the cab sped away she turned her head to look out the back windshield of the Toyota Corolla she was sitting in and her gaze met the most hostile set of green eyes she knew that she would never forget.

*****************************************************************************************************************************

“No really Nathaniel, some days I would kill for what you have,” Jason argued as he stepped into the alley with one of his closest friends.

The taller lycanthrope seemed to understand what his friend meant so he dipped his head to avoid making eye contact before he answered, “I know, but…”

A loud groan silenced the rest of his statement and suddenly a very tall, muscular vampire with a black shirt sporting the title ‘Guilty Pleasure Security’ appeared in front of them. Jason stepped back so he was directly beside Nathaniel as he gasped out, “Shit Buzz, you’ve gotten a little too good at sneaking up on people.”

Buzz grinned wide enough to flash fangs which proved that he really was just a baby in compared to most of the vampires in the bosom of St. Louis’ kiss as he replied, “Can’t really call myself ‘security’ if I’m not able to take any of the usual crazies by surprise, right?”

Nathaniel’s smile was completely disarming even though he knew that he felt the same tension that Jason had picked up on that cause Buzz to spring into action. He continued to smile at the ‘guard’ and asked, “So who is it that you’re protecting us from tonight?”

Buzz tried his best to smirk then replied, “Stay there and I’ll let you know.”

As the tall, muscle bound vampire approached the crumpled mass that continued to issue a soft moaning sound Jason and Nathaniel stepped forward as well. Nathaniel’s hand was clamped onto Jason’s arm, so he had no choice but to follow his friend even though the blond werewolf could have cared less what his auburn haired leopard friend was hoping to find with this vampire’s help. Perdita’s departure was new enough that Jason wasn’t searching out a new mate, so he was honestly looking forward to the ‘guy’s night’ that Nathaniel had proposed before their shift at Guilty Pleasures. If something that was of a life and death nature came up, he would probably be willing to help out, but Anita and Jean-Claude weren’t in town right now, so the eventuality of that happening was slim to none. But even then Asher was back in town and as Jean-Claude’s second in command he would be able to rally the troops to defend their fort, so to speak.

How was it that the Executioner and Master of the City were out of the city of St. Louis at the same time? There wasn’t an unaligned alpha lycanthrope or vampire with no pack or pard or any other group that was looking to move to St. Louis for sanctuary that required both of them to validate their claims right now, so they decided to pay their respects to some of the other Masters of the City around the United States. Richard Zeeman, Ulfric to the Thronnos Rokke Clan, was still in town while he finished grading papers for his junior high science class and the three of them agreed that he could exhibit enough power to keep their city calm. Barring that Micah Callahan, Nimir-Raj of the local leopard pard and soul mate to the not so cuddly Executioner was also close at hand. Of course Anita Blake, the Executioner, hadn’t felt any more comfortable with that arrangement as Jean-Claude, the Master of the City, so they all agreed that the two of them would stay out of town for as short a time as possible and of course would return the instant that there was the slightest hint of any trouble brewing.

Buzz found the small ball that was a person emitting the pitiful sound behind the dumpster just down the alley from where the performers exited ‘Guilty Pleasures’. He was young enough that he had to place two fingers just under the unknown person’s jaw line to check their vitals and then he quietly called out, “She’s alive… But I think that she’s injured, so I don’t know how long that’ll last.”

“She smells like pack,” Nathaniel whispered as he pulled Jason towards the kneeling vampire. Jason gave his friend an uncertain look so Nathaniel softened his eyes and nearly pleaded, “She might need our help. Just take in a deep breath… If she doesn’t smell like Lukoi to you then I’ll let it drop…”

Although Nathaniel hadn’t directed that commentary to the vampire, Buzz took in a deep breath and licked his lips. “I just smell blood.”

Still with a look of uncertainty on his face, Jason took in a deep breath and then it hit him. Leaves, earth, trees, sky, mountains… Pack… Whoever Buzz was leaning over was of the same blood as himself. Not only was she pack, but he could feel her distress. She was hurt and she hated herself for the moan that had brought the vampire to her location and she was trying to play dead so that the vampire wouldn’t feed on her. But what she didn’t seem to understand was that the three of them knew she was alive. They could feel her breathing, sense the blood flowing through her veins and to some extent hear the thoughts running through her head.

She may not have been from the same clan as himself, but Jason immediately sensed that she had come here to seek out safety from his pack because she was a drifter without her own people behind her. How he seemed to know that was beyond him and the fact that he was feeling that close of a connection to a complete stranger made him feel uneasy. He took a big step back and away from his friend’s side. Nathaniel gave him a questioning look that quickly morphed into one of concern.

Before the wereleopard could voice his worry for his friend, Jason quickly said, “Yeah, you’re right… she smells like pack, but I don’t know who she is. I mean she isn’t from around here, so we should probably be careful until we know why she’s here.”

That comment made both Buzz and Nathaniel chuckle softly, but it was Nathaniel that answered, “I don’t really think that she’s in any condition to take anyone on, let alone the three of us Jason. Come on, we should take her over to the Circus. I think Doctor Lillian was going to come by tonight to give Vivian a checkup since she’s finally convinced Stephen that getting pregnant isn't the worst thing that could happen and all. If we hurry then she can probably check out how badly injured this werewolf is.”

Jason sighed and didn’t even try to hide the disappointment in his voice when he replied, “Yeah, sure. We should probably do that. Buzz would you mind picking her up and carrying her?”

Buzz nodded and the instant that he touched the injured woman’s knees she let out a loud, blood curdling shriek that caused him to jump back a foot. She tried to tuck herself into a tighter ball as she chanted “No more… Please don’t hurt me… No more…” but her body wouldn’t comply. She was so badly beaten that any movement was so painful that it made her let out the most pitiful sounds from deep in her chest. Buzz looked over at the other men and shrugged not quite knowing what else he could do to help since she obviously didn’t want to be touched by him.

Nathaniel stepped forward and knelt down beside the moaning mass, but made sure to keep his distance from her to keep from frightening her any more than they already had. He kept his voice soft and caring and tried to sound as harmless as possible when he whispered, “We aren’t going to hurt you... we really just want to help you. I promise we won’t hurt you.” He then slowly reached a hand out to touch her, causing her to scream out, “No! No more!”

Nathaniel was startled by how loud she had screamed, but he didn’t move from his spot. From where he was sitting he could see that one of her legs was bent in the wrong direction. She needed medical attention and she needed it soon or her injuries were going to start to heal as they were. If that happened they would have to break the bones to set them and even then they wouldn’t have any guarantees that they would heal properly. Plus he had promised her that they wouldn’t hurt her, so he didn’t want to leave getting her to the doctor until it was too late because then they would have to hurt her and he hated it when he had to go back on his word.

He continued to survey the damage on her body while he tried to think of a plan of action. One of her eyes was swollen shut and the other seemed to be glued closed by blood that had dried on it that had come from a cut just above it. Blood still trickled out of the cut and Nathaniel knew that meant that she probably needed stitches and that the cut was most likely made by the claws of another lycanthrope or a sliver knife. Her left arm was pinned under the straps of two bags and her shoulder looked like it was dislocated. Whoever it was that had worked her over seemed to have known what they were doing because he knew that it took a lot of strength to inflict this much damage on a werewolf and it made him want to help her all that much more.

Tears started to fill his eyes as he turned to look at his friend again. Jason still looked annoyed at first, but his stony exterior softened the instant his eyes met his best friend’s concerned gaze. Jason let out a dejected sigh and then he moved to Nathaniel’s left side saying, “Here let me try. Maybe she’ll be less freaked out by someone that smells like the pack.”

  
Nathaniel nodded and then moved a little bit further back to give Jason some room to work. Jason knelt down by the woman’s side and spoke to her just over a soft murmur. Neither of the other men could hear what he was saying and Nathaniel held his breath when he saw Jason slowly moving his arm under her nose so that she could smell him without having to move at all. She didn’t seem to notice at first and continued to moan without moving at all.

“Here… Take a deep breath and smell the pack. We aren’t going to harm you,” Jason stated at a louder volume so that the other two men could now hear him. She let out a whimper and tried to move her face closer to him, so he took that as a positive sign and chanced a more forward approach. “Alright, so I’m going to untangle your arm from these straps. I apologize in advance if it hurts, but I promise I don’t mean to cause you any pain.”

As he spoke Jason had started to move her left arm back towards her body. She let out a soft pain filled noise, but didn’t do anything to try stop him. It took him longer than he had anticipated and he felt mildly guilty when he felt her grab his leg with her right hand because his moving her arm around must have hurt more than he thought it would. By the time he had her arm freed her grip had become viselike around the flesh of his thigh and he was sure that he would be sporting a nice dark bruise for at least a couple of days.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her ear. “Now I’m going to pick you up and we’re going to take you to someone that can help you to heal, alright?”

She squeezed his thigh more gently and then sighed out an almost inaudible, “Okay.”

Her response took all of them by surprise and Jason suddenly found himself frozen in his place. He jumped slightly in his spot when he felt Nathaniel tap his shoulder. “Hey why don’t I help you pick her up?”

Jason nodded then remembered her previous negative reaction to the leopard. He touched her cheek gently and when she tried to nuzzle in against his palm he said, “This is my friend Nathaniel. He’s just going to help me to get you off the ground. He doesn’t mean you any harm. Is…? Is that okay?”

She nodded but didn’t verbalize her response because she was afraid that she would let out the scream that had built up in the back of her throat from the pain that was now radiating from her shoulder. Jason then leaned back on his knees so that he could put out both of his arms to carry her weight. “Alright Nathaniel if you get her legs, I’ll get her arms. Just… Just try to be careful.”

“Of course,” Nathaniel replied to the side of his friend’s face.

Jason didn’t take his eyes off of the woman’s face while he and Nathaniel worked. She winced a few times, but she seemed to try her best to keep as silent as possible, much to Jason’s relief. She even tried to help him by flexing her arm around his neck once he had her good arm draped over his shoulders. Nathaniel kept a gentle hold of her legs while Jason very carefully rose up into a standing position. Once Jason was fully erect, he slowly placed her legs onto the crook of Jason’s right elbow. She did let out a small cry then because her broken right leg was now pressing up again Jason’s bicep so that he could carry her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his shoulder. “Thank… you.”

He laughed nervously then replied, “It’s no problem, but I’m the one that’s sorry. I’ll try to go slow so that I don’t hurt your leg any more than I have to.”

She let out another soft whimper, but didn’t say anything else because she had passed out in his arms. Jason let out a sigh of relief and then looked over at Nathaniel to say, “Alright you grab her bags and then let’s get back to the Circus. Can you call ahead to check to make sure that the doc doesn’t leave before we get there? Oh and check to see if you can find a wallet or something so that we can find out who she is.”

“Of course that’s a great idea. But look… Her eye’s starting to heal,” Nathaniel replied, motioning to her face with his chin. “We better hurry before her leg and arm start to heal too before they can be set properly.”

“Yeah, we should,” Jason stated simply before he turned and took off running down the alley.

Nathaniel was able to catch the doctor before she left the Circus for the night and she was waiting upstairs for them with some supplies. Although it wasn’t an ideal place to work, Doctor Lillian tended to the majority of the woman’s wounds in the supply closet like entry way at the top of the stairs that led to the main living area of the Circus of the Damned. The patient remained blissfully unconscious while the doctor stitched the deep cut above her eye and popped her shoulder back into place, but when the wererat touched her fractured leg her eyes flew open as she let out another devastating scream.

“Boys help an old lady out and hold down her arms,” the doctor instructed. As Jason and Nathaniel took their places, she gently touched the young lady’s face to try to make eye contact with her. “I’m not going to lie, this is going to hurt like hell, but it has to be done. Scream if you need to, but please try not to kick me too hard, okay?”

The woman lying on the ground whimpered and squeezed her eyes closed tightly once again. Lillian almost repeated her instructions, but stopped herself when she saw her patient give a small, yet deliberate nod. She then looked up at her two assistants to gage if they too were prepared for what was going to happen next or not. Nathaniel gave her an encouraging nod of his head, but Jason’s eyes remained solely focused on the face of the woman they were trying to help. Lillian shared a quick look of concern with Nathaniel, but let her thoughts go so that she could continue her work.

The doctor took in a deep breath to brace herself and then she place a hand above and below the knee joint that was twisted the wrong way. The ear splitting scream coming from the woman only stopped when the pain became so severe that she once again passed out. Jason and Nathaniel maintained their hold on her arms while Doctor Lillian finished tying a splint around the leg to ensure that it would now heal in the proper direction.

When she was done, Lillian move closer to the woman’s head and touched her previously puffy eye. She then reexamine the cut above the other eye thinking that she might need to take the stitches out so that they wouldn’t heal into the skin, but it didn’t appear to have healed at all from the last time she looked at it.

She ran a finger over the stitches then said, “Must have been cut by a silver knife.”

“Either that or someone’s claw,” Jason agreed as he finally made eye contact with the doctor.

Lillian heard the emotion creeping into Jason’s voice, so she tried to keep her own tone as clinical as possible so that she could be sure that he would hear the instructions she would be giving him for what she needed him to do to help this stranger after she had departed. “No, it’s too clean to have been a claw. But either way, it’s going to heal human slow. Now, you two get her somewhere where she can be comfortable and rest. When she wakes up try to get her to shift as soon as possible. If she’s as powerful as I think she is shifting should heal the worst of the damage done to her leg. You might even want to call in your Ulfric or Nimir-Raj to help her in case the pain is so severe that it impedes her ability to change.”

Both of the men nodded and quietly replied, “Yes Ma’am we’ll do that.”

After she had all of her supplies packed up Lillian made her way to the exit. Before she pulled open the door to the parking lot outside, she turned to look at the three of them and said, “I know they are doing a good will tour right now, but if someone could do that much damage to one of us, you might want to call back your Lupa and Nimir-Ra as well so that she can work at trying to find them.”

As soon as she saw them each nod in confirmation that they understood what she meant, Lillian turned and left without another word or look back. Jason turned his eyes back down to the woman on the floor. By this time her eye was almost completely healed so he was now able to make out her features more clearly. Without her eyes being open he couldn’t be certain, but given her high cheek bones and flawless complexion he was fairly certain that this brunette was breathtakingly gorgeous. Even her lips seemed to be resting in a perfect pout that made him want to lean over and kiss her.

That last thought caught him completely off guard, so Jason shook his head vigorously to force that train of thought out of his head. He then turned to face Nathaniel and he couldn’t miss the naked fear and concern that was in the other man’s eye. Was he just worried about the woman and the people that put her into this state? Or had Nathaniel been able to read the thoughts that had been running through his mind just a moment ago?

Either way he hated seeing his friend in pain, especially if he was the cause of it in anyway, so Jason let his lips spread into a cheeky grin as he said, “I would be more than happy to let you have the honor of calling Anita back here, don’t worry about that Nathaniel.”

The wereleopard let out a quick laugh then said, “Okay, but Jason? When you take her downstairs remember Doctor Lillian said that you should make her feel comfortable, so don’t take her to your room. We wouldn’t want to startle her too much by having her wake up in that pigsty.”

Jason playfully punched his best friend in the arm and let out another quiet chuckle. “Yeah you might be right there. I WAS thinking of taking her Jean-Claude’s room so that we’d have enough room to have a few of us from the pack to pile up around her to try to help her heal.”

“Good plan.”

Nathaniel once again helped lift the unconscious woman into Jason’s arms, although without her help it was a bit more awkward than the last time around. It took a little juggling to get her balanced in his arms, but once he did Jason turned and started moving towards the door to the basement so that he could get her to his Master’s bedroom before he lost his grip on her. She made absolutely no noise as he moved which actually helped him to keep a sure foot under him as he rushed away.  
When he reached the top of the stairs he paused a moment when heard Nathaniel call out, “So if I’m calling Anita I guess that means that you’ll be calling Richard, right?”

Jason’s only answer was to shake his head and echo his friend’s laugh as he continued down the oddly shaped stairs.  
*****************************************************************************************************************************

The general themes of all of her dreams were of comfort and warmth. The first one she remembered was of being held in her mother’s arms when she was young and had a terrible cold. Her mom had rocked her to sleep that night and stayed wither to make sure that she was able to sleep during the night despite her mom’s total inability to relax enough to sleep herself. During that bought of sickness her mother had done everything from reading her favorite books to her to brushing her hair in order to make her feel loved and comforted. She couldn’t recall a time in her life when she had ever felt more at home than she did at that time.

Other dreams ranged from lounging on the beach under the hot summer sun to curling up on her favorite lawn chair in front of a campfire in their back yard. Each of the dreams had one or both or her parents in it and not only was there warmth due to the climate and good weather, there was a warmth that only the love of a parent or family member could provide. A few dreams had her parents laughing so loudly and joyously that she almost thought she could hear it for real. Others had her being held tightly in one of their embraces, but no matter what was happening she felt loved, she felt comforted and most of all she felt completely safe. For a brief moment in time she allowed herself to cling to those feelings and forget that that was a world to which she no longer belonged. She allowed herself to forget the tragic events in her past that had stolen those moments away from her forever.

While she unconsciously allowed herself to be enveloped by the feelings of warmth and contentment, she let out a soft sigh as she snuggled deeper into the bed. She let the silk sheets mold themselves against her naked flesh and didn’t seem to mind that it stuck to any part of her body where her sweat had pooled on her skin during her sleep. The strong arms that were wrapped around her torso squeezed her softly, so she pressed her back against the owner of the arms’ chest. The faint cologne that clung to the bedding was little contest for the natural musk radiating from the flesh… Wait! Silk sheets? Naked body? And who the hell was it that was spooning her from behind? And why the hell was he naked too?

She awoke with a start and opened her mouth to let out a silent scream of pain because her jerking motions had jostled both her injured shoulder and leg so greatly. She felt the arms wrapped around her torso tense when all of her muscles stiffened and then she suddenly became aware of a third arm that was resting over her midsection and onto the person, well no she knew it was a man, behind her. Even though she was sure that they knew that she was awake she squeezed her eyes closed more tightly and she was surprised not to feel the pull of the stitches that she remembered someone sewing into her forehead. Her left shoulder ached dully, but she almost wrote that off as being the result of the position she had been sleeping in. But then there was her leg. Her leg felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly by tiny, red hot knives, but she forced herself not to react to that pain right now.

She held her breath and she tried her best to remain perfectly still while she tried to assess the situation she found herself in this morning… Or was it still night time? First she could feel that she was tucked in between two very warm, very male bodies underneath of a very comfortable silk blanket. At her feet was at least one or two other warm bodies, but she couldn’t tell what their sex might be without moving or opening her eyes. The pain in her face had nearly vanished, while the pain in her shoulder remained a dull ache but her leg was a totally different story. Her leg was hurting so badly that she nearly whimpered out a mournful sound when the hand of one of the people by her legs slid up to where the worst of the damage had been the night before.

Now that she could tell that her body wasn’t in any worse shape than it had been the night before, she laid there wondering how she was going to escape this bed. How would she fight off at least three other people while she was still hurting so badly? Maybe she could wait until they were all sleeping and then she could slip out without them knowing? And then what? Run? On this leg? No, there was no way that she could out run anyone with her knee feeling like it was going to explode at any moment.  
So, what could she do to save herself now?

She managed to keep her breathing steady and hoped that she had fooled her companions into thinking that she was still sleeping. That was until she let out a sharp gasp and her eyes flew open when she felt someone slowly lick the length of the cut above her eye. Suddenly her breathing started racing while she stared into a pair of compassioned filled chartreuse eyes. He gave her a careful and warm smile before he leaned in towards her again with his tongue slipping out through his lips. She instinctively flinched back which pressed her whole body even solidly against the man laying down behind her.

The man with the cat eyes chuckled softly and backed off saying, “It’s okay. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

She heard and felt the man behind her laugh softly as he hugged her back against his chest. “If we were going to hurt you we would have done it while you were passed out.”

That voice. The man behind her sounded so familiar and yet she couldn’t quite place where she knew him from. When she tried to move away from him, he loosened his arms just enough to allow her to make that movement. She then turned slightly so that she could look over her shoulder. When his face came into focus she quietly gasped again and whispered, “Angel…”  
“What?” The blue eyed and chartreuse eyed men both asked with a playful lithe in their tone.

She felt a dark blush creep up her neck to her cheeks. She settled back onto the bed in the same position in which she had awoken before she quietly explained, “He… You… you were there with Lilac and the vampire and you… you tried to help me almost as if you were my guardian angel or something.”

“Lilac?” The man in front of her asked looking thoroughly confused.

Jason chuckled again and she felt his chest bump against her back while he did so. “I think she means Nathaniel. You know because of his eyes?”

As if on cue the door to the bedroom opened and the owner of those beautiful, purple eyes walked through it. The long auburn hair that she remembered seeing flow behind him was now tamed and tied back in a tight braid that fell nearly to his feet. He was carrying a stack of towels in one arm and a glass of water in the other hand. The three people on the bed watched him as he approached the bed because he seemed to float across the carpeted floor with an almost unnatural grace. Once he reached the side of the bed he smiled down at the occupants as he placed the glass of water on the bedside table.

“Well it’s a relief to see you all finally awake,” he stated before he leaned over an place a quick kiss on the cheek of the man still laying in front of her. He then gently ran a finger across the eyebrow above he eye that had been swollen shut the night before and continued, “And it looks like you are healing pretty well Alexandria. You’re eye isn’t showing any remnants of the bruising you had two nights ago at all.”

She felt her cheeks burning again under a dark blush because he knew her name. How did he find out what her name was? And what…? Wait! “Did you say two nights ago?” She asked softly.

Everyone but her moved to sit up on the bed, even the blond haired man that crawled out from under the sheets by her feet. They all seemed completely oblivious of their nakedness and she remembered being told that nudity was normal for lycanthropes so she tried to ignore it too. Well as best as she could since at least one of the men’s manhood was so prominent that it would take a bought of blindness for it to be ignored. She couldn’t really sit up with the injury on her knee throbbing the way that it was, so she settled on rolling onto her back to look up at the four men.

“Yeah he most definitely did,” the blue eyed werewolf replied almost as if he was apologizing to her for something. “And I’m Jason and that’s Nathaniel by the way. But you can call me ‘Angel’ any time that you want to without hearing any complaints from me.”

She groaned and then raised the sheet up to her chin en route to covering her cheeks and hopefully her whole face to try to hide her further embarrassment. The man that had been licking her face retrieved a robe from the floor beside the bed after he left her side and as he tied the belt around his waist he good naturedly chastised the lone male wolf remaining on the bed, “Jason she’s been through enough without you teasing her.” He then turned his unnaturally yellow/green eyes to her face and asked, “I’m Micah. How are you feeling today Alexandria?”

“I… umm… my… Uhh… My leg still really hurts a lot.”

“Makes sense,” Nathaniel commented as he carefully placed the towels he had brought in with him down on the plush white carpet into a rather large, sloppy rectangle shape. “You know since we found you with your knee bending in the opposite direction of what it’s supposed to and all.”

“Bent…?” Hearing about another of her injuries brought back the most vivid image in her mind’s eye of the beating that she took before she was dumped out in the alley like a bag of trash. “Right but you brought me here and fixed it?”

Since she made it a question Jason very softly answered, “Yes we brought you here but it was Doctor Lillian that fixed you up as best she could.” He had slipped off the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans while she had hidden herself under the dark red silk sheet. He then crawled back up onto the bed to settle himself in a seated position beside her again before quietly saying, “She also said that we should get you to shift as soon as you woke up. We’ve done as much as we can to share our energy to help everything heal, but she seems convinced that only you shifting into wolf form will get your leg to heal completely.”

“No,” she whispered with as much desperation as that short word could inhabit. “I… I can’t… I won’t… I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

The three men (the curly haired blond male had left without making a sound or drawing any attention to himself) shared a questioning look, but it was Micah that spoke first. “Alexandria… You don’t have to worry about harming any of us. We’re all cut from the same cloth here so you have nothing to fear from shape-shifting in front of us.”

He and Nathaniel sat down on the bed while Jason helped her to move into a sitting position with her back against the headboard. She kept shaking her head back and forth without saying anything out loud. Jason draped a flannel shirt over her shoulders because Alexandria seemed to be uncomfortable being naked in front of them. Not that any of the men blamed her because they were complete strangers and it seemed perfectly normal to them that she wouldn’t want them to see her without any clothes on the first time that she actually got to talk with them. She seemed to relax a bit once her upper body was covered but as she buttoned the front of the shirt she still didn’t look like she completely trusted the three of them at all.

“Really it will be the best thing for you,” Jason explained from his seat to the left of her.

“I know… I mean I’ve heard that,” she replied as she tucked the sheet around her outstretched legs so that she could pretend that she was actually fully clothed and not still half naked under the sheet. “But if I shift then I’ll have to feed and I don’t want to go after any of you… My… my control… I haven’t mastered my control over my other half yet and after everything that you’ve done for me it would be pretty shitty of me to turn around and try to eat you in return.”

“Try to eat us?” Jason questioned with a chuckle.

“Yeah,” she replied with an annoyed bite. “When one of us turns we become ravenous and we’ll eat the first fresh meat we come across… right?”

Her angry tirade started to peter off at the end because of the concerned looks that each of the men were wearing. Her eyes swept to each one of their faces and when her eyes locked with Jason’s she hoarsely asked on the verge of tears, “Isn’t that right?”

Jason watched as tears welled in both of her near golden eyes and he felt his heart sink. He could feel the power that she was radiating, but she didn’t sound like she had the experience to back that power up. He grasped her hand tentatively but lost his words when he once again made eye contact with her. She didn’t move but she did let out a soft sob when she thought that Jason was refusing to answer her question. His gaze quickly flicked up to Micah’s face and thankfully the Nimir-Raj seemed to understand what the werewolf was asking without him having to say a single word.

Micah carefully sat back down onto the bed and made sure to keep from touching Alexandria because he didn’t want to overwhelm her right now. “No that isn’t right. Yes some people have difficulties controlling their beast and when they might shift, but pretty much everyone can control their appetite to some degree. Although the desire to hunt is strong within us, we aren’t murders. We don’t just go after any meat; we usually can wait until we find the right thing to satisfy our appetite.”

“Wait, so you mean to say… I mean… He lied to me?” She asked with a somewhat calm voice even though her tears spilled at over her cheeks like a never ending waterfall.

Since she hadn’t taken her eyes off of Jason’s face, he nodded then answered, “It sounds like he did. Umm… Why don’t I take you out of here so that you can get a quick bite to eat after you’ve shifted so that that nasty fracture will heal? Once you’ve had a chance to rest after returning to this fetching form, I promise that the three of us will answer any and all of your questions  
about what it’s like to be one of us. And yes, we will be completely honest with you.”

She smiled despite herself and then asked, “You promise?”

Since that had been a common phrase used when they had first met in the alley, Jason smile brightly as well and answered, “I promise.”

“Okay, if you think that it will help me then I’m willing to give it a try,” Alexandria answered with a resolute nod.

Jason’s smile shifted into a playful smirk as he slide off the bed and held out his hand to offer Alexandria a hand off of the bed. She shifted under the covers until she reached the edge of the mattress. She then very carefully eased off the edge of the bed and took Jason’s hand to make sure that she kept her balance. The way that she slipped off the bed to her feet ensured that she didn’t flash anyone and the length of Jason’s flannel shirt meant that anything she didn’t want to be showing remained easily covered.

Once she was on her feet Jason moved to step away from her, but she kept a firm grip on his hand which kept him in the spot close to her side. “Umm… Alexandria…?”

“Alex,” she interrupted softly. “My friends call me Alex.”

“Alright, Alex it is then,” Jason replied sounding more self-assured. “But… Umm… if you’re planning on shifting into wolf form any time soon, might I make a couple of suggestions or rather requests?”

“Sure…” She almost asked in return until she looked down at his hand that she was clinging to. When she realized what she was doing, Alexandria let go of his hand and took a step back before finding her voice to reply, “Of course you may make any suggestions that you can if you think that it can help me.”

Jason reclaimed her hand and started to lead her over to the other side of the bed where Nathaniel and Micah were standing.

“Well first, I have to say that I really like that shirt so if you are going to shift any time soon…”

As he trailed off realization hit her and she quietly exclaimed, “Oh! Oh right… Sorry…”

Her hands were trembling as she raised them to top button by her throat. She wouldn’t make eye contact with any of the men in the room so Micah calmly called out, “Why don’t we leave you to it to do on your own? Once you’ve shifted we’ll come find you and take you to the feeding area, alright?”

Alex’s hand quickly shot out to grab Jason’s forearm. He froze in his spot and shot the two wereleopards a fearful look.

Nathaniel offered nothing but a shrug while Micah tried his best to come up with something to say to him that might be of some comfort. His jaw open and closed a couple of times, but the words that the alpha leopard was looking for never seemed to take form.

“Please don’t leave me alone,” Alex pleaded as her grip tightened around his arm.

Jason was still sporting dark bruises from the time that Alex had used his thigh as a stress ball, so he wanted to ease her mind as quickly as possible to avoid acquiring matching bruises in a more visible area. He gently started to pry her fingers off his arm as he quietly said, “It’s alright Alex, I can stay with you if you feel like you need me to…”

While Jason worked at talking Alex down from her impending hysterics, Nathaniel took Micah’s hand and tugged him towards the bedroom door. At first the Nimir-Raj was reluctant to follow his favorite leopard but it only took one look at the younger man’s face to tell him that he shouldn’t try to argue with him right now. Instead he allowed himself to be lead out of the room before he finally asked the question that was running through his mind, “Nathaniel what are you doing? Are you sure that we shouldn’t make sure that she’s alright?”

Nathaniel leaned in to place a quick peck on the other man’s lips before he answered, “You’re so cute when you’re clueless. She obviously feels more comfortable with Jason than she does with either of us, so we should leave her with him right now. When she’s ready to tell us about how she became what she is and who brought her over she’ll come and find someone to talk to, but we won’t be able to force her to until she’s ready. I’m sure of it. You believe me, right?”

Micah took a second to scrutinize the look on Nathaniel’s face before his expression softened as he replied, “Yeah I believe you Nathaniel, but if she has to work up to it, it has to be bad don’t you think?”

“Yeah I’m pretty sure it’s really nasty, but then again who are we to judge?”

Alex nodded quickly and then laughed softly almost to herself as she looked down at where she had stopped on the other side of the bed. “That’s why Lila… I mean Nathaniel was putting down all of these towels… You guys want me to shift in here?”

“We wanted you to be able to heal your leg as soon as possible,” Jason answered with an easy smile. “Nathaniel always feels bad for the housekeepers whenever they have to clean the clear goop out of the shag carpeting so the towels are totally his idea. But if you want I can leave the room until you’ve shifted so that…”

“No,” she interrupted as she cast her eyes to her feet. “I… I don’t… I mean…” She paused there to regroup and then she forced herself to stand up straighter. Her lips then quirked back into a playful smirk and she continued to work at undoing the buttons of her borrowed shirt. Once she had each one undone, she slipped it off her arms and threw it over the back of Jason’s head to get his attention. “I think I’d feel better if I wasn’t left alone while I shift.”

Before Jason could turn back around to make a smart ass remark, he heard the familiar snapping and popping of muscles and limbs that told him that the newcomer was shifting into her animal form. When he turned around to face Alex he was slightly taken aback at the sight before him. Her golden eyes shifted to a more amber orange color as a werewolf and her coat was every shade of grey that one could find on a natural wolf along with a generous highlight of golden brown throughout her mane. She was larger in this form than Jason had anticipated, but he swallowed that surprise and tried his best to look like he was at complete ease.

“Well look at you,” he started with an obvious tease in his voice. “Not so ravenous now are you?”

Alex bumped her head against Jason’s out stretched hand and he obliged by running his fingers through her thick mane. There was something about this man that made her believe that she could trust him so she licked his free hand before she rubbed her furry cheek against Jason’s all too human cheek. He chuckled almost nervously but let her continue with the usual submissive greeting of pressing her nose to the edge of his hairline behind one of his ears. While she buried her wet wolf nose into his neck, Jason raised a hand to the back of her head so he could stroke it gently.

He opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself when Alex abruptly pulled her head back and away from his face. He watched her move with a look of uncertainty plastered on his face. At the size that she was in wolf form it didn’t take much for her to shift her position so that she could flick her long tongue out to swipe it across Jason’s bottom lip. He knew that this was a greeting given from a submissive to an alpha, but from the power he still felt rolling off of her Jason knew that Alex was anything but a lower level werewolf.

Alex swiped her tongue across his lip again after failing to receive the usual response that a dominant should have given a submissive by this time. He then took a moment to take stock of the situation with which he was now present. Yes he knew that she had enough power leaking off of her to be a high ranking wolf in their pack, but did she understand that that was the truth? Did she know that she could take charge of him while he was in wolf form if she only focused her power just a little bit?  
Given the fact that Alex continued to wait for Jason’s instructions he was more than fairly certain that she was not aware of any of the points that came to his mind. This time when she pressed her nose in behind his ear Jason scratched the werewolf behind her left ear and then he chuckled uncomfortably saying, “Alright… alright! Come on now Alex, we need to get you over to the grazing area before you decide to munch on little old me.”

Even though she was completely in wolf form Jason could make out the hurt look in her eyes so he quickly added, “I’m just joking! But seriously we should get you over there so you can keep your strength so you can keep healing.”

Alex then huffed out a breath through her muzzle but then she followed Jason’s lead without any further complaint or rather any other growling noises. He wondered if he should have shifted as well so that she understood how normal it was to have a lycanthrope shift and then feed within the inner sanctum of the Circus of the Damned, but he remained in human form because he felt that she needed to know the strength of her control even more. She had been told that she would become a near murderous beast whenever she took her animal form, but he knew that was nothing but fallacy. But he also knew that he could talk until he was blue in the face and Alex wouldn’t be able to acknowledge the error of her ways until he proved it to her which he felt like he was doing right now.

As they walked down the hallway to where they kept the livestock to feed on, Jason threw an arm over the back of the elegant wolf’s neck saying, “Stick with me babe, I’ll make sure to show you the ropes.”

A low growl trickled out between the werewolf’s lips, so Jason pulled his arm back and more contritely said, “Okay not cool with being called ‘babe’, I can work with that. But really Alex you need to eat. Just go through that door and help yourself. When you’re done come on back out and then I’ll find you somewhere so that you can crash once you return to your undeniably beautiful human form.”

As Jason turned to leave he was stopped by Alex’s head bumping against his hand once again. When he turned to look at her, she licked a long line from chin to forehead on either side of his face. He once again laughed nervously and then said, “It’s no problem really. Now go… Eat… I’ll come find you in a little while.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Anita! Please wait, just a minute…”

Alex’s head broke the surface of the water as she pushed herself up into a sitting position against the edge of the back of the bath tub. She heaved in a deep breath and couldn’t help but smile to herself that she still seemed to be able to hold her breath under water for longer than the average person, even with all of the turmoil surrounding her life right now which should probably have her too distracted to achieve such a feat. Alright in all honesty she hadn’t actually been timing herself, but it felt like she hadn’t lost any of her stamina that had been trained into her during her adolescence spent on a very prestigious swim team. During her past year travelling around the country, she had heard rumors that mermaids were real and she secretly wished that one of them had attacked her so that she had an excuse to live the rest of her life in the water instead of being the victim of the thing that had made her into a werewolf.

She shivered in her spot at the memories that that thought evoked. She then started to slowly slip back under the water to let it engulf her in its warmth again, even though she was sure the coldness she was feeling wasn’t something that could be cured by the hot water surrounding her, when she realized that she could still hear the murmur of voices. Right, she had heard someone yell and that was what had caused her to sit up straight so abruptly just a moment ago. Someone was mad, really mad and she had heard the name ‘Anita’ which led her to conclude that it was the Lupa of the local pack, the Nimir-Ra of the local pard and more importantly the human servant of the Master of the City that was the person who was angry and the most likely target for that anger was her. She hadn’t been in town for more than seventy two hours and she had already managed to piss off the most influential woman in the city without having even met her. Well scratch that, she had royally pissed off the scariest and deadliest person in the city without having said a word to them in person. Not the best way to ensure that she could stay here and make a new start for her life.

No, she thought to herself, this was much worse than any of the other worst case scenarios that she had come up with when she had weighed the pros and the cons of requesting an audience with Jean-Claude, the Master of the City, to try to make a, hopefully, permanent move into his territory and live under the protection given to any member of his collective. Now she was sure that this probably wasn’t the best plan that she could have come up with and she wished that when she dunk herself under the water again that she could continue down the drain and just be away from here. If she could just get out of here she could let them continue on with their lives uninterrupted and she, well she would do what she had been doing for the last twelve months. She would survive and to do that she would just keep moving, keep hiding. Alex scoffed softly to herself at how stupid she had been in allowing herself to have even the tiniest amount of hope that she would be able to settle down and feel completely safe here. That she allowed herself to become so deluded that she believed that she would find anywhere that she could feel so secure that she would whole-heartedly call it ‘home’.

Just as the top of her head was covered with water so that her whole body was below the surface of the bath water once again, Alex heard the volume of the murmuring voices increase. She could make out full words and partial sentences, but no one sounded like they were yelling right now. The lighting in the bathroom also changed ever so briefly causing Alex to feel like she should investigate. She should, but would she? If she truly was just going to try to melt away, metaphorically speaking of course, and run away again, did it really matter if she took the time now to find out what everyone was arguing about in the other room?

Of course it did because she knew that the topic that must have caused such a rift was her being in town and how she had been found. Alex forced herself to sit back up again, but kept her eyes closed with both hands covering her face to keep from facing reality just yet. All the while she couldn’t help but sit there thinking about how screwed up this ‘perfect plan’ had become. She had worried about starting out on the wrong foot with some of the other members of her pack because she had petitioned the Master of the City instead of the Ulfric for reasons she wasn’t ready to share with anyone just yet, but now that was most likely the least of her worries and she had no clue where to start to clean up the mess she found herself in. But if she was going to leave, should she waste her energy trying?

“Are you feeling better?”

Alex slowly let her face be revealed as she pulled her hands down her face to the base of her neck. Once she had her hands wrapped around her neck, looking like she might strangle herself right then and there, she allowed herself to open her eyes. She forced herself not to gasp or let her face show how she felt even though she knew he had already sensed her body reacting to the man in front of her once her eyes met Jason’s compassion filled baby blues. The smile on his face made her feel like a gooey mess but that melting had nothing to do with her desire to hide away. No that look made her want to stay and be on the receiving end of whatever promises that smile was making for a very long time. But she couldn't allow herself to give into those thoughts because she knew that she couldn’t indulge in those fantasies before she disappeared from the radar once again. No she couldn’t let herself give into any pleasures before she returned to the bleak existence that she had resigned herself to live for what looked like would be the rest of her life.

It was almost as if Jason could hear some of her deprecating thoughts because the light in his eyes dimmed ever so slightly and he looked nothing but concerned when he said, “Hey I thought you said that you would kill to have a hot bath, didn’t it make you feel any better?”

Alex shook her head as she answered, “No it’s not that… This bath is amazing, better than amazing, but I told you that I shouldn’t waste any time indulging in any luxuries right now. Your Lupa is here and she sounds like she’s mad… Scratch that she sounds like she’s wicked pissed and I’m more than pretty sure that it’s with me. You should have just let me take a quick shower so that I could have greeted her properly when she got here like you talked me out of.”

“And I told you that Jean-Claude instructed me to tell you to do anything that would make you feel more comfortable before they got back here,” Jason countered with equal parts forcefulness and playfulness in his tone. “They weren’t supposed to be back for a few hours yet and you said that a hot bath would do the trick and trust me this is the best bath in this place, so…”

“Oh my God! This… This… I’m in the Master’s bathroom? That… I woke up in the Master’s bed?” Alex questioned feeling sheer panic overtake her making it hard for her to breath and think.

Jason dropped everything that he had been carrying onto the floor at his feet before he rushed over to Alex’s side. He sat down on the edge of the tub and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder quietly saying, “Hey, hey Alex it’s okay. Just take in a slow, deep breath, okay? Come on, deep breath in, hold it… That’s good, now slowly out…”

Alex let her eyes remain focused solely on Jason’s piercing blue orbs while he demonstrated to her how he needed her to breathe right now. As soon as her breathing fell in synch with Jason’s, Alex started to feel slightly calmer. Jason could see the change in her, particularly how her eyes had bled out from being a dark amber to a brighter gold color that he had grown used to seeing while he and his friends talked to her about the lies and falsehood she had been told by a supposed alpha from her former pack since she had woken up. It was still beyond baffling to him that someone with so much raw power could have been tricked into believing that she was meant to be a submissive within their group, but he was going to heed his best friend’s advice right now. Nathaniel had made a point to take Jason aside to tell him that he had come to the conclusion that someone, or more precisely someone she had trusted, had convinced her that she was and would always be a lesser member of the pack. He recognized that she knew nothing about the power that existed within herself, nor the potential she held for even greater power and that they needed to teach her the truth of her situation before she hurt someone accidentally, but they had to do it carefully and gently so that they didn’t unduly frighten her. It wasn’t going to be easy because from what the wereleopard had witnessed Alex seemed to have been betrayed by someone in whom she had placed near absolute trust, so they were going to have to gain her confidence before they could repair the damage that had been made. Of course he also noticed that a certain werewolf seemed to have broken through some of Alex’s natural defenses and Nathaniel was not shy about encouraging Jason to exploit Alex’s attraction to him to help all of them accomplish their broader goals. Jason had been reluctant to agree with the last part of Nathaniel’s plan, but flirting came to him as naturally as breathing and he too felt himself being drawn to Alex, so if it would help her in the end he was willing to make the sacrifice.

“She hates me,” Alex whispered as she closed her eyes and curled herself into as tight a ball as possible where she was still seated in the bathtub. “It doesn’t matter what I meant to do or what I want because she already doesn’t like me and nothing is going to change that.”

Jason opened his mouth to try to quell Alex’s fears, but she stood up so quickly that he fell silent with surprise. As she stepped out of the oversized tub and down the steps beside it, she avoided meeting Jason’s eyes and nearly whispered, “So I should just… I’ll just go. There’s nothing that I can do… or say…” She paused then and swallowed so hard that Jason could have sworn he heard it. “But thank you, thank you for everything. I… I owe you and your friends the biggest debt ever, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get to repay you… I’m… I’m…”

“Hey,” Jason shushed her into silence as he wrapped a towel around her body while remaining behind her. As he covered her with the towel, Jason hugged Alex against his chest. She was just slightly shorter than him so she fit comfortably under his chin when he hugged her against his chest. She did nothing to stop him and remained completely passive in his embrace, but Jason could feel her trembling and he knew it had nothing to do with the temperature in the room. He kept his voice soft and careful, almost as if she was a jumper and he had been tasked to talk her off the ledge before she took the final plunge to her death, “Hey she doesn’t hate you Alex. She’s… she’s… she’s just…”

“Pissed off at me,” Alex finished for him before she sniffled in a breath. “She’s angry with me and…”

Alex didn’t finish that thought because she was trying to swallow back a sob. She didn’t want to start crying because she didn’t know if she was ever going to be able to stop. The closest she had ever felt safe was a few months prior to her arrival in St. Louis when she had stayed with a pack in Tennessee and she nearly allowed herself to break down completely with some of the members there, but then… Well she wasn’t still living there for a reason and she never actually had the breakdown that had been increasingly building since she had left everything from her previous life behind a year ago. But she couldn’t allow those tears to surface now because she wasn’t going to be able to let herself find comfort and support in the arms that were wrapped around her right now or with any of the other members of his pack and if she couldn’t have them to help her stop the tears then she couldn’t allow them to start because she might never be able to get them to stop. Plus she was going to be leaving here and continuing to forge a life of solitude, so it wouldn’t be fair to drag any more strangers into the chaos that had become her life.

Alex’s melancholy was so intense that Jason could almost taste it, so he squeezed his arms even more tightly around her torso when he felt her about to try to step away from him. He bent his face down so that he could rub his left cheek against Alex’s right cheek. At first Alex remained completely rigid in his arms, but Jason felt her slowly start to relax, one muscle at time under his careful attention. She even started to move her head back and forth to reciprocate and mirror his comforting movement.

“I swear to you, she really isn’t mad at you,” Jason whispered against her ear.

Before Jason could say anything else, Alex shot out of his arms and was turned with the towel still securely wrapped around her body so that she was facing him. Her movements were so fast and so smooth that Jason could barely follow them, but he told himself that that was only because it was so unexpected, but he knew that it was partially because of the power that she possessed that made her a much stronger lycanthrope than she had been led to believe that she was. Once she was turned around and was facing him he found that he was also no longer looking into the face of a woman that needed his comfort, but instead he was looking into the fierce eyes of an alpha that was ready to put up a fight if she felt like he was backing her up into a corner. He could also see that she was actually going to be putting up a fight and he secretly wished that Nathaniel was here to help him since his usual tactics seemed to be failing so miserably.

“Don’t lie to me Jason,” she demanded with a growl as her eyes started to bleed into the dark, fiery amber glow that he had immediately learned to associate with her beast coming out. Alex shivered in her spot and hugged her arms even tighter around her torso as her resolve seemed to waver slightly. “I can feel something… Someone is trying to calm her or someone else down in the other room, so don’t you dare try to tell me that she isn’t angry with me.”

“She isn’t.” Jason stopped again and held out his hand to keep Alex from interrupting him. “She’s…” Jason shook his head and couldn’t help but smile coyly (and he hoped he had his head ducked down enough that Alex couldn’t see it because he didn’t want her to think he was laughing at her) as he continued, “If she finds out I told you this she’ll kill me… No, not literally! But… Well, the truth is that… she’s scared. The way that we found you, well if we hadn’t have found you that night you might not have made it. At least you wouldn’t have been able to walk again if someone didn’t help you according to what Dr. Lillian told us, so Anita is worried about who could be able to do that much damage to you and why they would do it. Actually all of us are sort of wondering if it’s someone that is trying to undermine Jean-Claude’s authority and wants to challenge him or our Ulfric. See we’ve all finally been able to get comfortable here after a lot of territorial fights and other shit, so the last thing we want is to have someone sweep into town and disturb all of that again. So if you’re sensing any anger it isn’t directed at you, honest, it’s for whoever might be coming to town to try to screw everything up here.”

“No, oh no,” Alex whispered with pure terror in her voice and fear leaking off her aura in waves so strong that it almost made it hard to breathe for both of them in the bathroom. “It isn’t like that. They aren’t trying to start a fight with any of you. Oh God this has all gotten so screwed up!”

As she talked Jason could see Alex crumbling one inch at a time until she ended up on her knees with her arms still securely hugging her midsection with her towel now forgotten in a heap at her feet. She still wasn’t allowing herself to give into her tears but Jason could see that she was close to succumbing to them. He wasn’t sure if he should approach her again, but then he reminded himself that all shifters, no matter the flavor, seemed to find comfort when they were touching someone from their own were-group or really any lycanthrope period, so he decided that he would at least try to touch her. She hadn’t seemed to have shied away from his touch so far and he hoped that she wouldn’t start right now. Alex had started to literally tremble in her spot and to hyperventilate quietly causing Jason to forget any of his trepidation because he just wanted to comfort her and take that sad, scared look out of her eyes.

He stepped towards her and once he was on his knees in front of her Jason could hear Alex saying to herself in a voice that was barely audible, “There’s nowhere else to go, what the hell am I going to do now?”

“Alex,” he started quietly as he gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “Alex, you don’t have to leave. I swear to you, once we get the air cleared between you and Anita everything is going to be fine. You can stay here… That is if you still want to…”

The hint of uncertainty in Jason’s voice caused Alex to raise her head and meet his eyes. Jason raised his other hand to cup the side of her face just under her jaw bone. Every argument that she had come up with, every accusation she wanted to throw in his face to try to keep some emotional distance between the two of them completely disappeared when Alex saw the sincere compassion in his eyes. In that instant she couldn’t string together a coherent thought let alone an ugly lie, so she just nuzzled her cheek into the palm of his hand and tried to let him see her gratitude and relief in the color of and look in her eyes.

  
Jason opened his mouth to offer some more words of advice but was silenced by Alex saying, “I want to stay…” She then closed her eyes and let a single tear fall down her right cheek as she finished through a whisper, “But I’m not sure that that’s a choice anymore.”

“It is if you let it be,” Jason replied finally allowing his own desire show in his voice and eyes. Alex sat back and questioned him how she would ever attempt to accomplish that with the devastated, lost look in her eyes causing Jason to say, “Alex you know. You’ve been shown how to fix this if you really want to.”

Once she met Jason’s eyes again Alex realized that she did in fact have the knowledge of how to show her submission and sufferance to an alpha lycanthrope. If she could translate that into her having Anita, their Lupa, accept her apology then maybe Jason was right, maybe she could let St. Louis be her home. She could be honest with them, to a point that is, which would quell the worst of their fears, but she knew she couldn’t tell them everything. Could she just tell them some of her truths and still have them trust her enough to let her stay?

Alex was so tired of running and she really wanted to hear what the Master thought of her proposal. She missed her old life and although she knew she could and would never fully go back to that life, she desperately wanted to have a least a piece of it back. Her soul felt incomplete and the only part that she could easily pick out as missing (with the help of a few members and friends of the pack in Tennessee) was the activity that she had abandoned completely since being turned into a werewolf, but if the Master of St. Louis liked her proposal then there was the slightest chance that she could get it back. That she could keep from feeling like she had completely lost herself to that horrific night over a year ago.

But first she had to get the Master’s human servant, and more importantly the possible love of his life, to forgive her (despite Jason’s protests that it wouldn’t be too hard, Alex still seriously had her doubts that she could actually accomplish such a feat). She rubbed her right cheek against his hand to wipe away the tracks of her tears and then gave a quick ghost of a kiss against his palm before she moved out of his hold. Jason wanted to reach out and grab her in some way again because she still had the most heartbreakingly lost look in her eye, but if distance was what she needed he had to force himself to give it to her, or so said his instincts and almost more importantly his best friend Nathaniel when he had given Jason advice about how to help Alex.

Alex chanced a quick glance at herself where she was still kneeling in front of Jason and almost smiled when she noticed that she had finally stopped trembling. “I’ll need clothes,” she finally announced to herself almost too quietly for Jason to hear it.

It took a couple of seconds for the words to finally register in his brain and then Jason suddenly found himself staring at Alex’s face. Her eyes glittered softly with humor causing Jason’s breath to hitch slightly. But it wouldn’t be cool for him to be choked up right now, so he swallowed his true reaction to try to keep her on this track as he smiled then replied somewhat plainly, “I brought your bag in with me. I think it’s on the floor somewhere behind you, but…”

“Oh, okay,” Alex interrupted as she turned away from him. She knew every article of clothing that she would find inside of that bag and she was pretty sure that the majority of them were in desperate need of a good, deep cleaning. There was also a smaller percentage that would probably have to be burned to get the stench out of them and by now they had probably contaminated the few articles that could have at one time been revived, so her search was pretty much a lost cause for something suitable to wear to apologize to her potential Lupa.

Still ignoring the towel she had abandoned on the floor, Alex turned and crawled over to her duffle bag. She tried not to let out the whimper that escaped her lips but she did nothing to stop herself from nearly crumbling into a ball completely over and around it. Jason stopped his hands just before they hit her bare shoulders from behind and sat back on his haunches without her seeming to have noticed his movement. She remained coiled into a tight ball on her knees and Jason just remained stunned for a moment. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, in real life, and she had so much potential to be a strong, compassionate alpha wolf in his pack and yet there was something missing… and he thought that element was confidence. Who had rattled her cage so bad that she would be also become anxious so much by the lack of covering for her scrumptious form?

“Alex?” Jason called out as a question because he wasn’t sure how he would be received right now by the woman in front of him. When she didn’t lash out negatively after a count to twenty, he tried again quietly saying, “I wasn’t sure of your actual measurements but Jean-Claude also sent me in with a few things that might fit you… They’re in the other bag.”

Jason found that he actually had to move the bright red leather athletic styled bag into her eye-line before Alex seemed to have become aware of it. She tentatively took it from him so Jason backed off ever so slightly to watch her. She pulled the sliver zipper back and did nothing to hide the gasp that escaped her lips when she saw some of the contents inside the bag. She had heard rumors and stories of the different outfits Jean-Claude had put his people into for different displays and fights for dominance, but what she found seemed even more unbelievable than any story she had heard. First she found a pair of jean capris, in a light wash color and style similar to the ones she had grown accustom to wearing during the summer months she had spent growing up in the Pacific Northwest. It took Alex a second to swallow down a sob at the memories that article of clothing alone evoked and then she sputtered out a laugh when she saw that they were the perfect color and were actually in her size. The shirts and tank tops she found in there were in numerous jewel tones ranging from emerald to amethyst and were tight enough that she could leave the room without having to try to find a bra that didn’t seem to be present in either bag.

After she had pulled on the capris and a deep purple bra tank top on, Alex turned towards Jason and asked, “It’s better if I don’t put on any makeup or jewelry, right? I mean if I want her to believe that I’m totally contrite I need to look as harmless as possible, so me being clothed in casual wear will work best, right? I… I don’t really have anything that’s clean enough to look this… uhh… innocent.”

Jason couldn’t help but think that Alex looked strong and beautiful so calling the outfit ‘innocent’ seemed wrong to him somehow, but the look on her face told a different story. Her confidence seemed to rebuild around each article of clothing that she put on, minimal that they were. The purple of the tank top brought out the small flecks of brown into her eyes to keep them from looking too other worldly and the jean capris just seemed to fit over her curves like a glove so Jason had to force himself not to stare.

Alex felt comfortable enough in the clothes but she still worried about what she should do with the rest of herself. Since Jason had vaguely nodded to the affirmative that she was better off not worrying about caking her face in makeup, she still couldn’t resist scrutinizing her appearance in the nearest bathroom mirror. She never liked slathering on too many cosmetics, a light layer was okay for the right occasion, but Alex almost missed the sponges and brushes she had used to conceal her imperfections in the past right now even though she was sure they wouldn’t help her with what she had to face on the other side of the bathroom door. Going outside in just her own natural complexion complemented with the color of her top was such a foreign concept that she almost asked the werewolf behind her if she had to do this right now because she knew that she did. If she flaked and or shied away now, then she might as well forget about trying to ever attempt to make amends in the near (or distant) future with the Executioner, Anita Blake. Despite her being the Lupa, Nimir-Ra and Human Servant to the three men that were considered the most powerful beings within the St. Louis borders Alex knew that that title was the one that was worrying her the most at this moment.

Alex jumped in her spot when she felt Jason touch her still wet hair with a towel. She then laughed nervously because she hadn’t realized that she had gotten so distracted by her thoughts. Jason smiled to himself at hearing her sound more at ease and continued drying her hair saying, “I’m not sure what you were thinking of doing with your hair, but I figured either way you wouldn’t want to go out there with it dripping wet.”

“True,” she agreed quietly with her voice sounding kind of breathy. She continued to watch Jason dry her hair through the mirror in front of her. They let the silence between them grow, but it never became strained. Instead it felt completely natural and comfortable which caused Alex to feel uneasy. Very gently she grabbed one of Jason’s wrists to stop him and said to his reflection, “Thank you for all of your help Jason, but…” Her eyes flicked down to the sink her left hand was still holding as she took in a deep breath. “You’ve done too much. You don’t even know me, you don’t know why I’m here or who hurt me, why… Why are you helping me so much?”

Jason took a step back so that she had the room to turn around and look at him. Once she was facing him again he noticed that she wouldn’t make eye contact with him, so Jason slowly lifted Alex’s chin with a crooked finger. “You’re right I don’t, none of us do and we’re all really hoping that you’ll tell us all about it. When we talked to you about what it meant to be a werewolf, you were nothing but open and honest with us, so I guess that earned you a little trust. Well none of us could smell a lie on you, so maybe you’re just some kind of sociopath, but I guess time will only tell on that one.”

That last comment caused a surprised laugh to escape Alex’s lips. She was still smiling when she turned back to the sink to pick up a brush and shook her head replying, “No, I’m not a sociopath… At least I haven’t become one yet.”

“I’d be happy to offer my services to keep that from happening,” Jason stated lowly against the shell of Alex’s right ear.

The sound of his voice and nearness of his body caused Alex’s breath to catch in her throat. She managed to pull her still damp hair into a bun with shaky hands while she tried to come up with any type of response. Jason watched her with a concerned eye because he thought that he had overwhelmed her and undercut some of the confidence she had regained just a moment ago. He once again mentally kicked himself for not keeping his mouth shut, but he found it so hard not to let her see how she affected him. He had tried his best not to say any of the things that Nathaniel had warned him about, but there were so few people that he could be completely genuine with and despite the teasing lithe to his words, that’s all that he wanted to be with Alex. Everyone knew that Jason was a smartass and that appeared to work for his relationships with them, but Nathaniel and Anita seemed to be the only ones that had been shown the genuine kindness of his heart. He probably could have tried to be that way with Jean-Claude, but that didn’t seem to be how their relationship worked. It wasn’t like Jean-Claude was oblivious or negligent of Jason’s feelings, they just didn’t seem to have to use words to show their connection. That worked out just fine, so why did he feel compelled to verbally upchuck all of these thoughts onto Alex right now?

Running her hands over her head once again to smooth down her hair, Alex nodded and squared her shoulders saying, “Before I allow myself to entertain any thoughts about the future, I have to smooth things over with your Lupa.” She shook her arms out as if she was ridding herself of some tension in her muscles. She then looked Jason in the eye, gave him a tentative smile and asked, “So how do I look?”

Gorgeous, he thought to himself with a soft smile tugging at his lips. Her own smile wilted slightly at the look she saw on Jason’s face and he knew that she was misinterpreting what she saw. This time though he wasn’t going to just tell her what was on his mind. That wasn’t what she needed to hear right now even though it pained him almost physically to hold his tongue.

  
“You look good. The uh… having your hair off your face helps to make it look like you aren’t trying to hide anything and that’s what we’re going for, right?”

‘We’re’, Alex thought to herself with nervous apprehension. Since when did this insanity include him? Why didn’t it bother her that it felt so right that he was willing to stand beside her to offer his strength to help her get through this? Why did he have to have such a stupid smile that broke down every defense she had learned to put up to protect herself since the night she had started her life on the run?

Alex forced herself to forget all of those questions and replied with a soft, still unsure smile, “Yeah that’s what… we’re going for. Okay I think I’m as ready as I’m going to be to do this.”

The slight hesitation that she made before acknowledging they were somewhat of a team didn’t go unnoticed by the blond werewolf, but he couldn’t allow himself or her to indulge in those destructive thoughts right now. Instead he focused on the fact that she acknowledged that he would be there with her, that she wasn’t going into the other room alone. Maybe that meant that she truly was ready to become a member of his pack.

Presenting Alex with his bent right arm, a habit of his since he had gotten to know Anita so that she could keep her right hand free to retrieve her gun, Jason gave her a disarming, encouraging smile saying, “I guess that means there’s only one thing left to do.”

Alex took his arm, grateful for the support because she wasn’t sure that her knees would hold out and let her walk without it. Once she saw him grip the door handle she almost told him to stop. All of the confidence she had felt a moment ago seemed to have disappeared and she once again just wanted to disappear, to melt through the floor and not be here anymore. She couldn’t do this, she couldn’t face anyone and tell them the truth about how stupid she had been, about how she had continued to place near absolute trust into all of the wrong people. But a little voice in the back of her mind told her that she had no choice. If she didn’t come clean now she knew deep down that she never would. If she left now she was probably leaving her last chance to return to anything close to a normal life.

Jason gave her one last smile and then he pulled the door open. He then took a step forward and since she had her arm wrapped securely around his bicep she had no choice but to follow or she would be dragged out into the other room. Her feet started moving without any thought and she almost wanted to laugh at how her previous worries about her legs supporting her were completely unfounded but she didn’t allow herself to be so blasé. The atmosphere in the room they were entering was too serious for her to appear like she was feeling light-hearted especially when her rapidly beating heart truly felt like a lead weight pounding against her ribs right now.

The first sight that Alex was confronted with was a woman with black curly hair wrapped in the lap of a man with hair that looked like a fake or unnatural tint of red on the edge of the bed she had awoken in wrapped around three lycanthrope bodies. Micah, the Nimir-Raj that she had already met was sitting next to that pair petting one of the woman’s hands with his eyes focused solely on the raven-haired woman’s face. It didn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that the woman had to be the one that Alex was dreading to have to meet. But why was she sitting on the bed with a man that wasn’t one of her known lovers when her leopard king was sitting beside her looking so lost?

Shut up! She told her brain because her assumptions or opinions didn’t matter. It was her, Alex that had to impress her, Anita, not the other way around. Before she knew it she had released Jason’s arm from her near death grip and she was on her hands and knees on the plush carpet of the Master’s bedroom. It took her a moment to come back to herself enough to realize where she was and then she took in a deep, cleansing breath. She let her head hang down enough that her chin touched her chest and she reminded herself that she could do this. No, scratch that, she wanted to do this so that she could clear the air with everyone and hopefully move forward with her plans.

Jason immediately stepped away from Alex when she went to her knees because he wanted to let her do what he thought she had planned to do at her own pace. He wished that he could have walked her over to Anita with her on his arm, but that didn’t seem to be what she wanted or needed to do. She wanted to do this on her own and in her own way and he had to respect that. Actually he did respect that and her display made him love her a little bit more. Love? When did his wanting to jump her bones or protect her turn into him thinking that he might love her?

Still on her hands and knees with her face turned down to the carpet, Alex started her slow crawl towards the dominants seated on the bed. Damian (the vampire servant wrapped around Anita’s back to help keep her as calm as was possible in the moment) only had eyes for his mistress, but Anita and Micah instantly recognized what was happening. Micah slowly pulled his hands away from his Nimir-Ra and gave her an encouraging nod of his head. Alex was still a few feet away from the bed and Anita took Micah’s encouragement as a gentle instruction to meet the werewolf part way to help to appease her.

Damian’s arms flexed around Anita’s torso when she tried to get off the bed so she patted his hands and turned to kiss his cheek before quietly saying, “It’s okay Damian, you’ve more than done your job. I’m calm. She needs her Lupa to hear what she has to say right now and I really want to hear whatever explanation she has to offer for the shitstorm she seems to have brought with her.”

Although the words in the end of her statement were somewhat hostile, they were said in such a serene tone that everyone in the room could feel her sincerity. She truly wasn’t angry with the woman crawling towards her; she was enraged at the situation that had put Alex into this position. Alex could feel that and it made it easier for her to find the words that she might say to make amends with everyone right now.

Alex brushed her head against the outside of Anita’s thigh once she reached it and she almost knocked the other woman over when she tried to rub her head in the same fashion against the inside of the other woman’s leg. Micah was there to catch Anita’s left arm to help her stay on her feet as Alex’s movements became more frantic. Anita recognized what was happening at her feet and was grateful for Micah’s help so that she could widen her stance so that her feet were a shoulder’s width apart which gave Alex more than ample room to maneuver.

Once Anita had gained her center of gravity in her spot Alex continued to rub her cheeks against each side of her jean clad legs. After a couple of minutes of the same motions, Alex finally offered her right hand up to her dominant. Anita took it automatically even though she wasn’t completely sure that she was ready to offer any forgiveness to the woman at her feet. As soon as Anita took her hand Alex relaxed minutely and then she tentatively raised herself to her knees. When Anita didn’t respond negatively Alex slipped both of her arms around the other woman’s waist so that she could more easily raise herself up to her knees. There was no doubt that from this position she exuded nothing but submissiveness, but Alex still rose herself up onto her knees so that she could run a soft tongue against Anita’s bottom lip.

In the past the sensation of someone licking her lip in any fashion that wasn’t sexual would have given Anita pause, but she had grown up a lot since then. Instead now she took it for what it was an apology of sorts, and reminded herself that she could not appear squeamish in any way. Alex was acknowledging her as a dominant and Anita couldn’t allow herself to act any other way but as Alex’s superior or else this display would be all for nothing.

Suddenly Anita found herself on her knees hugging Alex which was the only way that she heard the werewolf nearly sobbing out, “I’m so sorry… I know you had plans. I didn’t mean to interrupt them and come here early… I didn’t… They didn’t… They wouldn’t listen and they just dumped me off early. I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry!”

Since the room was filled with lycanthropes and vampires, Anita instinctively looked around her but none of the men would meet her eye. Great she was once again left alone to comfort a sobbing werewolf but she honestly wasn’t sure why Alex was apologizing so profusely. Her hands however seemed to have a mind of their own and they pet the side of the sobbing woman’s head and upper part of her back while she continued to cry.

Anita finally found her voice and quietly asked through her own confusion, “Alexandria it’s okay, I mean it will be alright, but what do you mean that they dumped you off here?”

“I… It…” Alex forced herself to release Anita from her death grip so that she could look up into her face and continue, “It means just that. I was too hurt to protest so they just did whatever they wanted.”

“Alright, I think I get that part,” Anita countered with a hint of annoyance or anger slipping into her tone. “But why and how did they beat you to the point that you couldn’t… or wouldn’t be able to protect and defend yourself?”

“I COULDN’T!” Alex nearly screeched because this was going so much worse than she had anticipated. “I swear I couldn’t! If I could have gotten here any other way I would have, but they were so angry… they stopped listening…”

Alex was now wrapped around Anita’s tennis shoe clad feet nearly sobbing so Damian stepped up behind his master and place a soft hand on each of her shoulders. He and pretty much everyone else in the room could see that Anita was getting so annoyed with the situation that she missed how distressed Alex was right now. The werewolf was scared, terrified to her core, but why? They all needed to know why and Anita appeared to be the only person that Alex was going to confess everything to, so he wanted to help make that happen.

As soon as Damian’s flesh touched her, Anita visibly softened and she heard herself saying, “Shh it’s okay Alexandria. I know they hurt you and I want to help you, but I can’t do that until I know why they hurt you and who they are. Please tell me everything that happened to you to lead up to you being near death in an alley by one of our clubs.”

She wasn’t sure if it was the tone of voice or the words she heard, but suddenly Alex stopped crying as she sat back on her knees to look up into Anita’s face. Anita’s eyes looked as open and caring as Jason’s so without any hesitation she softly replied, “They were humans that picked me up when I was hitchhiking.” She could hear the intake of shocked breath from pretty much everyone in the room, so she felt like she had to elaborate on her explanation. “They wanted more than money for a ride to St. Louis and when I wouldn’t comply they got creative. They had silver ammunition, hand cuffs, sledge hammers and a lot of scary looking knives. I didn’t want to hurt or potentially kill a human so I didn’t try to fight them until it was way too late.”

“Humans?” A couple of voices questioned around the room.

Alex only had eyes for Anita so she answered looking the other woman in the eyes, “Yes, humans. They wanted to have… To uhh… They wanted sexual favors from me but when they found out what I was they seemed content with just beating me up. I swear to you that this wasn’t a challenge to yourself or your Ulfric or the Master of the City. I swear to you it wasn’t!”

There was a hush murmur of ‘oh my god’s and other exclamations of disbelief after Alex finished her explanation. Anita found herself petting the werewolf’s hair and then she pulled her head towards her stomach as if to ward off any other blows. Alex’s arms once again wrapped themselves around Anita’s waist because she needed the support before she crumbled into a sobbing ball of self-doubt once again. Anita’s touch remained comforting but her eyes wandered around the room as if she was asking any of the men around her what she should do next. Damian and Micah once again pet an arm each and suddenly she felt like she had the words to say to calm the woman at her feet.

“Alexandria you didn’t do anything wrong. What they did to you, that was their choice and they deserve to be punished,” Anita said lowly with so much conviction that Alex had to sit back to look up into the other woman’s face.

“No… No, that isn’t… I’m fine and they’re gone, so you don’t have to worry yourself about it. It’s okay, I’m fine.”

There was a trickle of power that started to flow through the room and the hairs on Anita’s arms started to rise. Anita instinctively pulled Alex flush against her body and she kept a firm, yet comfortable hold so that she was partially protecting the werewolf while she did a quick visual sweep of the room. After checking over each shoulder no less than three times, Anita felt even more confused. No one else had entered the room since she had given the order to Claudia and Nicky not to allow anyone else into the room until they had a better read of the new werewolf that had come to town and yet the power dancing over her skin didn’t have a familiar feel.

Anita continued to hold Alex while she opened the marks between her and Richard Zeeman, Ulfric of the local werewolf pack and third part of her triumvirate with the Master of the City, to attempt to read it. As soon as she let down that shield, the ghost of a wolf that lived within her body in relative harmony with her other beasts stirred. It didn’t take much for Anita to lull it back into a restful slumber, but it wasn’t shy in telling her that she was closer to the source of the power she was sensing and nearly tasting than she thought that she was. As the shadow wolf settled it seemed to feel content because it knew that it had helped Anita even if she still didn’t seem to understand what was right in front of her.

Anita forced herself to take in a deep breath and then finally she could smell it and taste it: mountains, trees, earth, musk… werewolf. Although this power was one that she had never tasted before and it felt more powerful than anything she felt emanating from Jason and Graham (a security guard posted on this side of the bedroom door in case of any emergencies), who were the only two werewolves in the room except for…

Alex, Anita thought to herself. She then focused that small part of her own magic or power that was still connected to the Thronnos Rokke clan through Richard and then she felt it. Although she wasn’t of the same pack as the werewolves Anita was connected to, she knew that the power was coming from the wolf cowering in her arms. She startled slightly in her spot and then once again surveyed the looks on everyone else’s faces in the room. Most looked as shocked as she felt, but Bobby Lee, the strapping quasi-Southern gentleman looking wererat who had come to be known as the head of the security detail at the Circus of the Damned, seemed to share her apprehensions. If he thought that the woman in her arms was still a threat to all of them then maybe Anita had been too quick to forgive… But something in her gut questioned if that was right.

The last pair of eyes that Anita’s found was the sky blue irises of her werewolf to call, Jason Schuyler; would be lover of the woman huddled into her grasp. At first his concerned gaze remained fixed on Alex, but when he felt the weight of Anita’s glare he reluctantly moved his eyes to meet her questioning scowl. The look that she was met with in Jason’s eye caused her pause and then every muscle in her body seemed to relax minutely before she quietly asked him, “She doesn’t know?”

Jason shook his head profusely then hoarsely replied, “No… She was told that she was weak… a lesser member of the groups she had last tried to join and she believed it with all of her heart.”

Alex seemed to remain oblivious to the fact that they were talking about her because she never once made any move to join the conversation. She seemed to be content to stay resting in Anita’s arms even though she continued to tremble slightly. She wasn’t sure if it was fear of rejection that was causing her to feel such unease or if it was fear of the unknown. Was she going to bring chaos and disorder to disrupt the harmony that these relative strangers had finally managed to obtain? Would Jason hate her and leave her feeling even emptier than she did know that her worst fears might come true? Was this truly her last hope to try to salvage anything close to normalcy for her life?

Since she was clinging so tightly to Anita, she seemed to be able to feel every thought that was running through Alex’s mind. In the past Anita would have become uneasy and run away from sharing such raw, deep feelings from anyone, let alone a shifter who was unknown to her intimately, but now she just let herself be almost consumed by it. Despite everything that was said and done today, Alex was still feeling terrified about staying in St. Louis. This was a town that embraced the supernatural like no other and yet this werewolf, this woman seemed fearful that she wouldn’t be safe here either. What could have happened to her that would make her believe that the pain that she left behind would somehow always find her?

Tears started to well up in Anita’s eyes, but before she could say anything else a beautifully calming voice said, “ _Ma petite_ I believe that Ms. Hughes has been baring enough of her soul to all of us this night. Perhaps we should allow her some time to come back to herself before we ask her to expose what is left of her essence even further?”

The fact that Jean-Claude made the last part of his statement a question wasn’t lost on Anita at all. He WAS the Master of the City, but he never shied away from letting Anita believe that she wore the pants in their relationship. She in turn gave him a grateful smile, but her appreciative reply got lost in her throat when she felt Alex go stiff in her arms.

No one seemed to be able to say anything as they watched Alex extract herself from Anita’s hold ever so slowly. Once she was kneeling of her own accord, Alex turned her attention to the vampire that owned the silky smooth voice, almost as if she expected him to be a ghost that she wouldn’t see. Once her eyes landed on the charcoal black, curly haired vampire wearing a white shirt with a lacy fringe running around his collar down the center of his shirt and skin tight black leather pants she once again felt like she just wanted to melt through the floor. How could she have ignored the fact that the Master of the City had been standing in the room this whole time? Of course her priority had been to make amends with her potential Lupa first and foremost, but would that single-minded focus be a detriment to her potential partnership with the vampire that might hold the key to her salvation?

While everyone except for the bodyguards seemed to hold their breath and look apprehensive about the room for any potentional threats that might happen next, Jean-Claude stood in his spot oozing nothing but nonchalance and gracefulness. He wasn’t upset at Alex’s display of forgiveness to his Human Servant because he knew that Anita wouldn’t have had it any other way, despite what she might try to tell herself. He was attracted to her for a reason and he wasn’t about to allow her to feel shame about being stubborn or dominant since those were the traits that had originally drawn him to her.

Jean-Claude opened his mouth to say some words of comfort, but the sight of Alex crawling in his direction immediately silenced him. He did however share some of his soothing sentiments with Anita via their psychic connection while he watched Alex gracefully raise herself to her feet as she moved towards him without breaking stride. While he waited for her to finish her approach, Jean-Claude remained stationary where he stood but he did allow a sly smile to tug against his lips while he watched the curvaceous brunette make her final approach.

“Jean-Claude, Master of the City of Saint Louis, I have been remiss in my negligence to acknowledge your distinguished presence with us here tonight,” Alex recited with a graceful ease. She then fell to her knees in front of the century’s old vampire and somehow made it look elegant so that she could present the side of her neck to him saying, “I present my neck and my blood to you for my unforgiveable oversight. I beg your forgiveness and will offer any other part myself to prove that I am most sincere in my apology, you need but ask.”

Jean-Claude placed a hand under each of Alex’s elbows to raise her up to her feet. Alex kept her left cheek pressed to her left shoulder and her face passive as she allowed the vampire to pull her closer to her body. Everyone, other than Jean-Claude and Alex, seemed to take a collective breath while they awaited the vampire’s response to the werewolf offering such a vulnerable area of her body as a greeting. Yes all of them understood that this was a standard offering of a submissive to a dominant vampire, but for some reason everyone seemed to think that after Alex’s unconscious display of power that Jean-Claude would try to retaliate in some way.

Of course the Master of the City had earned his name for a reason and continued to exude nothing but confidence and ease as he lowered his lips to Alex’s carotid artery that was pumping hard enough that she might overwhelm anyone that tried to take blood from her right now so that he could place a soft kiss against her skin. There were a few uncomfortable chuckles in response to his action, but it was Alex that jumped in her place under the press of his soft lips against her skin that surprised Jean-Claude the most.

“Ms. Hughes, you need not apologize to me. _Ma petite_ is a demanding presence that I do not apologize for and one that you were wise to appease,” Jean-Claude explained with a soft smile tugging at his lips.

“Ms. Hughes?” Anita asked over the rest of Jean-Claude’s potential thoughts. “Why do I get the feeling that you know what all of those ‘I’m sorry I was early’ apologies were all about?”

Jean-Claude chuckled with that touchable sensual caress of his voice before he replied, “Of course I do _ma petite_ and I believe that you should too…” The frown that spread across Anita’s face was answer enough, so Jean-Claude made sure to press a slight bit more power behind his next spine tingling, arousing laugh before he gently admonished, “You must have been too caught up in learning about each of the Masters that we were to meet over our two weeks of travel to remember the lone wolf that was seeking refuge in our humble hamlet.”

“Can you blame me?” Anita question without attempting to hide her sullenness at the situation in which she now found herself. “Not only did I have to please the Masters but I had to learn everything their partners AND mistresses liked as well. Come on, tell me that wasn't like double the work it should have been!”

Jean-Claude just chuckled again as he slipped his arm around Alex’s shoulder and pulled her into a comforting side hug against his body. If it were anyone else it would have look like a juvenile display of affection, but the Master vampire somehow made it look comforting and protective at the same time.

“Of course it was, Anita, but that does not mean that we should allow ourselves to overlook the proposal that Ms. Hughes presented to us.”

Crap, Anita thought to herself. He didn’t use the nickname he had given her so many years ago which meant that he was genuinely annoyed by her behavior. Her gaze flicked between the vampire and the near cowering werewolf while she tried to conjure any memories of why this woman in Jean-Claude’s arms should be familiar to her. She forced herself to step away from Damian and Micah’s hands so that she could be alone in her thoughts and then the memory hit her like a battering ram.

She was sure that Jean-Claude had projected it into her mind, but she had no room to be grumpy because she felt somewhat guilty about forgetting the short proposal that Jean-Claude had read out to her before they had embarked on their “Good-Will” tour. At the time she had figured that she could half listen then re-read it once they got home, but now she was scrambling to recall everything that he had said. And by the look on his face he was expecting her to say something that would make it sound like she truly understood what he had referred to just a moment ago.

Without hiding the thoughtful scowl on her face, Anita finally replied, “A business proposal… Alexandria Hughes had a business proposal to present to us…”

“You mean Lexie Hughes,” Nathaniel called out as he took a step towards Alex who was still tucked protectively against Jean-Claude’s side. “Everyone says that you disappeared from the face of the Earth a little over a year ago and I should have known it was you but you changed your hair and there’s something different about your eyes, but it’s you, isn’t it?”

Alex swallowed hard and before she could reply Jean-Claude very authoritatively said, “Perhaps you may be correct _mon minet_ , but why don’t we all retire into the salon before we delve even deeper into the life of _ma nouvelle gamine_?”

The warmth that accompanied Jean-Claude’s mild words told everyone that there was no room for argument before they tried to pry more truths from the young lady he was protecting. They may all have a hundred and one questions for her, but they would all hold their tongues. They all wanted to shout out something to her, but instead they just watched her back as Jean-Claude led her by the arm like a proper gentleman into the room where most of their gatherings had taken place with other visiting dignitaries over the past few years.


	3. Chapter 3

After more than a little maneuvering, everyone was seated comfortably in the living room area in front of a white brick fireplace, sans fire of course. Well Alex was as comfortable as a girl… Ahem werewolf could be while sitting across from the Master of the City, his Second in Command, the Executioner, two wereleopards, a werewolf and a handful of wererat bodyguards. What didn’t help matters was that the handsome looking vampire with the golden hair who had been introduced as Asher, Jean-Claude’s _témoin_ , his witness in vampire terms which meant that he was his Second in Command, remained on his feet pacing behind the couch where Jean-Claude, Anita and Micah were now sitting. At first the pacing didn’t really bother her, but then she noticed that she never actually got to see the right side of his face. Any time that he walked in the direction where that side of his face should have been visible to her, the vampire managed to use his hair to hide the entire right side of his face. Although that did seem odd to her, the thing that she found the most unnerving was that whenever he turned to face her fixed her with the most piercing glare out of his one eye ice blue eye. How someone was able to fill one eye with so much rage made Alex swallow hard and she consciously had to work at keeping herself from wilting or shivering under that intense glare.

An even more unnerving sight to her psyche was that there was only room for three people on the couch. Anita sat comfortably in the middle with Jean-Claude on her right side and Micah on her left without any of them touching each other.  Alright that wasn’t really all that strange, but seeing two grown men wrap themselves around their legs did seem quite odd to her. Nathaniel sat between Anita’s and Micah’s legs with his long auburn braid trailing over Anita’s lap. Every so often Anita would run her hand over the bumps of his hair almost as if she was trying to calm herself down by being distracted by his silky braid or maybe it was just an involuntary action. Somehow in her mind it felt less creepy if the movement was a conscious effort not to show her anger to the newcomer in the room because petting a human inanely as if they were some sort of dog who lived only to please its master just seemed too strange for words and if that was how she would be expected to act then Alex wasn’t sure that this was the place for her after all.

Speaking of dogs, well werewolves, what she saw between Jason and Jean-Claude nearly made her feel physically ill. He had readily curled up against Jean-Claude’s right leg and the vampire very blatantly stroked and ran his fingers through his short blonde hair without ever looking down at the man at his feet. The Master’s face remained completely serene while they all found their seats and it didn’t change as he watched Alex’s discomfort grow while he literally started petting his _pomme de sang_ ’s head. Jason had briefly met Alex’s eye, but he swiftly cast them to some unknown part of the plush carpeted floor. She was sure that he saw the horror that she felt at watching him nuzzle his left cheek against Jean-Claude’s knee. It wasn’t that she thought that there was anything wrong with two men being in love and showing it in public, because she didn’t. She had had a lot of homosexual friends (both male and female) in her other life and they had been some of her closest confidants. She had never shied away from seeing them show their partners that they cared for them through physical touch and only felt annoyed when she allowed herself to show her jealousy during the periods of time when she was getting cranky about flying solo in a world of happy couples. What bothered her the most about what she was seeing between Jean-Claude and Jason was that she thought that they, herself and Jason, might have been able to be something to each other, that she would be able to get to know him much more intimately. But he was obviously ‘intimate’ with the Master of the City, so how could a lowly werewolf like herself hope to ever compete with such a gorgeous specimen of a vampire that was currently petting his head. Now she was questioning everything that Jason had said to her in the bathroom because if he was in love with the male vampire, what were the chances that he would have feelings for her?

Nathaniel’s bright purple eyes quickly flicked from looking at Alex to the two men to his right so quickly that no one could have noticed it. After talking with Alex about what she had been taught about being a lycanthrope, he and the other two men immediately recognized that she knew very little about their actual culture. She knew most of the titles for the Lukoi and what roles those people played, but she didn’t seem to understand how shapeshifters fit into the vampire culture. He knew that it took Anita a while to feel comfortable with physical contact not leading to anything sexual and Alex seemed embrace that part of their nature, but she didn’t seem to be at all comfortable with being cozy with a vampire. Although they never got to ask her about it, the three wereanimals seemed to know that any of the packs that Alex had spent time with hadn’t had a healthy connection with the vampires in their town which meant that he understood that he was misinterpreting why and how Jean-Claude was touching Jason right now. She hadn’t known the term _pomme de sang_ let alone how close the relationship between the vampire and lycanthrope could be and the look in her eye told him that was definitely something that she needed to hear and talk about, but not in such a public setting.

Not being one who liked to be a part of confrontation, Nathaniel eased himself up so that he was sitting up in his spot and was no longer touching either Anita or Micah as he almost reverently asked, “It really is you, isn’t it? I can’t believe I didn’t see it before when we were talking with you because I’ve been trying to talk Anita and Micah into a short holiday up to Seattle for a while now so we could go to your restaurant… well I had been before I heard that you disappeared and were no longer the head chef there anymore.”

Alex actually felt herself blush as she smiled then replied, “And here I thought I was so clever…” She managed to take a drink from her coffee mug with an unnervingly steady hand even though they had been trembling just a moment ago. “I haven’t been to a salon in almost three years, so my hair’s grown out from my signature goldi---” She paused there when she caught another glimpse of Asher flicking his hair over the right side of his face causing her to swallowing the rest of the word ‘goldilocks’ because the color she used to dye her hair was truly a disgusting butter yellow color compared to the metallic like, truly golden hue of the hair of the vampire that continued to pace angrily. She then amended her statement to finish saying, “My signature blond locks and now everyone gets to see my gross mud brown hair. As for my eyes… When I was in high school my mom finally agreed to let me get brown contacts because the pale yellow/brown color I was born with­ seemed to make everyone uncomfortable while I was growing up… I… I got teased a lot when I was a kid that I had alien eyes, so when I started a new high school I just wanted to fit in... But they kind of got left behind when that thing turned me into one of you and I figured that dying my hair was a dumb idea since I’d probably lose the color once I shifted.”

“Actually,” Nathaniel started to protest before Anita snapped, “‘That thing’? Look Alexandria… Lexie… Alex or whoever you are, we have enough self-loathing shifters here in town that we’re trying to counsel, so maybe we should just stop this interview now because I’m not sure that we’re ready to take on another one.” Anita finally allowed her smile to become almost cruel as she finished, “But we do thank you for your interest in joining our group here in St. Louis. I’m sorry that it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out.”

Alex’s hand started to tremble once again in response to the heat in Anita’s words, but before she could say anything in defense of the slip of her tongue, she heard the touchable, smooth voice that only Jean-Claude could project saying, “ _Ma petite, ma petite_ , please let’s not be so quick to judge. I’m sure that _ma gamine_ has a very logical explanation for using such a term.” He then turned his penetrating sapphire gaze to Alex’s face as he asked, “ _N’est pas ma gamine?_ ”

Alex had to force herself to stifle a giggle because the vampire’s voice evoked so many naughty sexual thoughts and then she smiled with a touch more easily at her thoughts of how he had been able to ease the tension in the air before she countered, “Did you really call me your ‘pup’?”

Everyone went still in their seats at her direct question and didn’t relax until they felt the caress of Jean-Claude’s amused laugh. “ _Oui… Oui… Mais je_ _pourrais vous donner_ _un autre surnom s'il vous plaît_.”

Alex laughed quietly despite herself then answered, “No, no it’s fine. I’m just a little rusty with my French so I wanted to make sure that I had actually understood what you were saying.” She then turned her attention to Anita and the other lycanthropes in the room to explain, “He said that he would give me another nickname if being called ‘ _gamine_ ’ or ‘pup’ bothered me and I swear that it doesn’t. Although I’m not really used to having any nickname other than ‘Chef Bitchasaraus’. I swear I have always been good to my staff, but my patrons they demanded perfection, so I could accept nothing less that. It made me the bad guy, but well since Nathaniel knows my name then I guess that means it got results, right?”

“Right,” Jean-Claude answered with a spine tingling laugh. “But please, so that everyone else may try to understand the anger behind your words, if you do not hate being a werewolf why would you use the term ‘that thing’ for the one that turned you? And why would you not join his or her pack instead of spending over a year on your own running away from planting any solid roots with another wolf pack?”

Shit! SHIT!! Alex thought to herself. This was NOT the story that she wanted to tell right now. No she wished she could have just gotten into more details about the proposal she had sent to the Master and his Human Servant, but she knew she couldn’t get to that until she answered Jean-Claude’s questions. She had really wished that she could have spent some more one on one time with Jason and told him about the ugly truths of her past while being held in his arms because she seemed to instinctively know that she would have felt safe with him in a situation like that. Instead she was staring at a bunch of relative strangers who were projecting emotions through their eyes ranging from compassion to anger to just plain indifference. The last of course was coming from the bodyguards and she took no offense to it because they were just doing their job. It was expected that they wouldn’t be emotionally involved in this conversation because that would cloud their judgment and make them less effective on the job.

Alex lifted her mug of coffee to her mouth to give herself a brief moment to compose herself. She even went so far as closing her eyes and just breathed in the comforting scent of the best cup of coffee she had had in over a year which reminded her about how much she truly did miss her old life and how much she needed to make things work here so that she could start to actually rebuild her life. She couldn’t survive living on the road anymore, her heart wasn’t in it and she was beginning to worry that her soul was dying a little bit with every step that she ran and every time that she went into hiding. Now she had a chance to make a foundation here and all she had to do was be honest with the people that were staring at her and awaiting her reply. But how could she find the words to tell the absolute truth when that was one of the things that she had been hiding from for so long?

How indeed, Alex thought to herself. She finished her coffee then took in a deep breath and decided the only way was to just do it. Stop thinking about it, stop worrying about how people might react, just say it and let everything play out however it was going to. She couldn’t control how her story would be received so she couldn’t allow herself to worry about it anymore. A few of the people she had actually allowed herself to get somewhat close to over the last year had reminded her of the words old prayer for serenity to try to help her whenever she thought that she might tell them the truth; “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” She had heard that saying more times than she could count, but today was the first time that she thought that she had actually felt and understood their meaning.

“I honestly don’t hate being a werewolf… I mean I’ve come to terms with it and it truly is who I am now and that’s alright. When I say ‘that thing’ it’s because I really do believe that he is a monster because most of the shapeshifters that I’ve met, present company included, don’t use their beast as an excuse to act like one and don’t go around hurting people for their own amusement,” she explained in a very tentative voice. She swallowed hard there and couldn’t stop the tears that started to roll down her cheeks. Through a shaky voice and with her bottom lip quivering she continued, “I don’t know who did this to me and all I know it that when I woke up he was shifting while he was… was… inside of me and then he cut me up so badly that the doctors didn’t think I was going to make it and I probably wouldn’t have if I hadn’t have been infect… God I had that word but if I hadn’t have been infected. He didn’t care if I lived or died and took pleasure in my terror so if that isn’t a monster than I’m not sure what is…”

Alex paused there while she tried not to choke on her tears while she attempted to dry her cheeks on the sleeves of the hoody that Jason had found for her when noticed she was shivering from the chilly climate of the stone caves under the Circus of the Damned. Just as she had feared, it felt like she couldn’t stop the tears now that they were flowing but she knew that she had to calm herself down somehow. That was only half of the response that Jean-Claude had requested to hear and she knew that she had to get through the rest of it. Not just because he had asked but because she needed to tell it. She had to get this terrible weight off her chest so that she could finally start to heal the wounds that had been inflicted on her soul. At least that’s what the vargamor, mystical protector of the wolf pack she had considered joining in Tennessee had told her a few months ago. Once again she felt like the words she had heard during more than one session with the Wiccan advisor finally seemed to make sense to her. Now she didn’t just hear them, she felt them, she understood them and she knew she had to keep going because she finally felt like she was ready to tell someone the whole truth.

Alex continued to cry but she managed to calm her breathing somewhat until she felt hand touch her shoulder. That unexpected physical contact caused her head to whip around so that she could check who had been so bold as to touch her right now. What she was met with both confused and comforted her because it was Nathaniel with his tear stained cheeks and compassion filled eyes that she found standing to her right side. When she didn’t try to get away from him, he slid his hand across her back under the hood of her sweatshirt as he eased himself onto the arm of the chair where she was sitting. Once he had his arm across her shoulders, he placed his head on her shoulder and tucked himself against her side.

Just as she was about to say something to the wereleopard Alex jumped in her seat when she felt someone touch her left shoulder. Almost reluctantly she forced herself to lift her cheek off of the silky warmth of Nathaniel’s hair to turn her face to the newcomer. The moment that her eyes connected with Jason’s she felt like she couldn’t breathe. He looked like he was trying not to allow the tears that were welling in his eyes to fall as he placed a gentle, almost loving hand on her left cheek. Without any conscious thought Alex allowed him to hold the weight of her head in his hand and then she nuzzled her cheek into his palm so that she could rub her nose against his wrist. She never had truly thought that she would feel comfortable with another werewolf after what had happened to her and she had always tried to maintain a safe distance from male members of any of the packs she had briefly visited, but there was something about this man that made her forget all of her trepidations and doubts. From the first moment he whispered words of comfort to her in the alley, Alex knew that he wouldn’t intentionally hurt her. She knew that Jason was someone that would help her and right now she knew that she wanted him to be holding her when she finished telling her tale.

Jason almost seemed to have been reading her thoughts because he just nodded and then he moved his hand from her face and ran it over the length of her back just over where Nathaniel’s arm was resting. He then slipped onto the chair’s arm to the left of Alex’s seat as he nearly mirrored Nathaniel’s position. While Nathaniel had slumped down the length of his lean body a little farther down the arm of the chair so that he could place his head on Alex’s shoulder, Jason remained seated more upright so that the side of Alex’s head could easily rest lightly against his chest.

Although she still hadn’t managed to cease her tears from falling, Alex finally felt like she could speak through them again as she finished her response to the Master of the City, “And I didn’t stay with his pack because they all smell like him. Whenever I was at their Lupanar I could only smell him and it just made me sick to my stomach. I trusted a couple of wolves from that pack and forced myself not to listen to my nose, but it turns out they were his friends and from what Jason, Nathaniel and Micah have said, they lied to me try to make me believe that I had to stay with their pack to be safe, but I couldn’t… I just… just…” Alex broke down into chocking sobs as she sputtered out, “I can’t bare to be near him again… He’ll… I… I don’t know what he might do to me… And… and… I don’t… don’t even know who he is… He’s from that pack, that’s all I know but none of them would listen, no one would help me figure out who hurt me because they kept saying no one from their pack would… would…” She finally gave into her choking sobs for a moment before she recomposed herself to finish, “would rape someone, so I knew that I was on my own to keep myself away from him and I just ran. I couldn’t stay there so I’ve been on the road trying to find somewhere that he can’t find me and I understand if I can’t stay here. You’ve had enough shit to deal with so you really don’t need my crap to be added to the pile. I’m sorry I brought this to you all, but I just… just thought that I could be safe here and that I could start a life just like Marianne suggested. I’m so sorry… I know now that I was wrong… So I’ll just… I’ll leave…”

She tried to get up then so that she could run away. Yes she had finally admitted to herself that she wanted to stay here, but somewhere deep down she knew that she couldn’t and she wouldn’t settle down here. That was a dream she should have let die a long time ago, but somehow she let Marianne’s words cloud her judgment and then she came to St. Louis and found that everything Marianne had told her was true. This as a place of acceptance and the wolves here did in fact make her feel safe, but even with all of that being true Alex still wasn’t sure that this was the place for her.

So she struggled to get out of her chair so that she could run, but she was stuck in her place because Nathaniel and Jason had their arms around her and were using them to keep her in the chair like seatbelts did in a car or airplane. Alex didn’t trust herself to make eye contact with anyone in the room so she just turned her face and burrowed it closer into Jason’s side. Her tears came out fast and hard and for the first time in a long while she let them flow of their own accord. Had it not been for Jason and Nathaniel’s strong arms holding her to the seat she was sure that the strength of her sobs would have unseated her and caused her to crumble into a ball onto the floor. But they did hold her tight and she relished in the feeling of the warmth of their skin that tried to comfort her even though she knew that she shouldn’t allow herself to accept it right now.

As she continued to cry into Jason’s side, Alex felt the cold caress of a vampire’s hand brush against the side of her face. It took no effort at all from the vampire’s part to move Alex’s chin with his fingers but she remained stubborn with her eyes closed even as her face followed the unknown man’s fingers. He gently ran his thumbs under both of her eyes once the tears ceased flowing as he said, “We never would have pushed so hard if we knew the truth _notre petite jeune louve_. Please accept our apology and our offer to stay here with us. After you have rested, if you still choose to leave then so be it, but please don’t run from us until after that… Please Alexandria?”

Alex swallowed hard and then nodded with her eyes still closed because she didn’t trust that she would actually be able to speak just yet. He kept his hands cupping the sides of her face, so Alex forced herself to open her eyes to face him properly. Once she had her eyes open, Alex completely lost her ability to breathe. For the first time she was able to see both of Asher’s unnaturally pale blue eyes. She forgot to feel relieved that his eyes no longer twinkled with unmitigated rage like they had just moments ago because she got so lost in the beauty of his golden hair framed his beautiful face. She also didn’t seem to have noticed the scars that marred the entire right side of his face because her focus remained absolutely fixated on Asher’s eyes.

It didn’t take long for Asher to misunderstand Alex’s silence, but he was stopped from backing away from her when she placed her hands on top of his that were still on her face. He went completely still under her touch and replaced the compassion he had been wearing on his face with a careful blank mask that kept anyone from reading his thoughts or feelings. But Alex didn’t really notice that. All that she saw was a minute change of color in his eyes that told her that something in his demeanor might have changed while she let herself get lost in the color of his ice blue eyes.

She smiled softly and then finally answered, “I guess it couldn’t hurt to sleep on it before I make any decisions.”

“ _Bon, bon_ ,” Asher replied quietly before placing a soft kiss on her forehead. Alex once again closed her eyes and let the feelings of comfort that that embrace evoked wash over her. Asher then gently pried his hands out of her grasp and then he slowly walked back to his spot behind the couch saying, “And I know that I am not the only one that is eager to hear the details of your proposal. It sounds quite intriguing and I would very much like to hear more about it.”

“He isn’t the only one,” Jason added softly into Alex’s ear.

A slight shiver ran through Alex’s body as she slowly turned her head to look at Jason. She startled in her spot at how incredibly close his face was to hers and she almost leaned in to close those last couple of inches so that their lips would touch. Instead she just whispered, “After a good night’s sleep I’d be more than happy to tell you all about it.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat purposefully caused Alex to come back to herself as she hastily threw herself back into her chair to put some space between herself and Jason. She then quickly turned her head to face the originator of the noise. Anita was actually smiling and looked like she was silently having a laugh at Alex’s expense, but the werewolf didn’t allow herself to relax at all until she heard what Anita had to say.

“It’s true; dawn will be finding us all soon so sleep most definitely will be in order, but Alex? There are still a few more uncomfortable questions that we all need to have answered. I know that what you told us just now was painful and I do thank you for your honesty, but before we all retire for the night I need to know that you are ready and willing to continue being that open with us. I know it may seem unfair, but I have to insist that we hear it all before we make our decision.”

Anita fixed Alex with an intense stare, but there was no hostility in the alpha woman’s eyes so Alex found that she was able to remain calm… Well as calm as she had been able to become after Jason and Nathaniel had started to hold her in their arms. She then gently removed the two men’s arms from her midsection so that she could carefully slink her body off of the chair where she had been sitting during her breakdown onto the floor. Once she was on her knees, she placed her hands on the carpet so that she could gracefully crawl around the large glass coffee table that separated her from the woman she was seeking out. Micah quickly stood up to keep from blocking her course towards his Nimir-Ra, but Alex didn’t notice his quick movement because she only had eyes for her new potential Lupa.

Once she reached the spot where Anita was still seated, she paused and then slumped her body while still on all fours. Alex then started running her cheek against Anita’s jean-clad knees and quietly stated, “I know I shouldn’t make demands to you, but if you continue to make me feel this safe and cared for then… then…” She had to pause there to swallow back a sob as her tears started to fall with a renewed vigor. “Then I think I might have the courage to tell you everything… Although I think that was the worst of it, so whatever you want to know all you need to do is ask.”

Anita opened her mouth to do just what the submissive werewolf had requested, but she stopped herself from uttering a sound when she felt Jean-Claude grip her arm in a vise-like grip.  While Alex continued to rub her tear stained cheeks against her knees, Anita turned her hostile looking eyes towards Jean-Claude. He too did not utter a sound, but Anita could still see the unheard laughter in his eyes which caused her to soften her stance substantially.

“ _Ma petite_ now is now the time to ask those questions. As you have already pointed out, dawn will find all of us soon which means that some of us will be… How do you say? Completely out of commission.” He smiled then and pet her cheek. “Let us all retire for the day and once we all awake again tonight we can rehash all that Ms. Hughes has to share with us.”

Anita nodded then replied “Okay” just as the wolf at her feet quietly said, “Alex.” Everyone froze in their spot causing the werewolf at Anita’s feet to look up at the two people still seated on the couch. The look on their faces caused her to sit back on her haunches and cast her eyes to the floor as she demurely added, “You’re the Master of the City, you need not use a title for me so please just call me Alex, sir.”

Jean-Claude let out another spine tingling, sensual laugh before he answered, “ _Bien_ _sûr ma gamine_ , if you wish I shall call you ‘Alex’ from now on.” He then stroked Alex’s head alongside Anita’s hand that had never left the side of her head saying, “But we must now all retire for the day. We have many guest rooms so please let Jason or any of the other members of my staff know what you need so that you may have a restful sleep. I am sorry to say that I believe you will need it since our next conversation will most likely be as uncomfortable was your confessions were with us tonight.”

Alex remained on her knees in front of Jean-Claude and Anita with one of their hands on each of her cheeks as she nodded then replied, “Thank you… Thank you so much Ma’am, Sir… But I don’t need much… Right now a bed with sheets would feel like a luxury to me.”

The sound of Jean-Claude’s laugh caused not only Alex, but Anita to shiver as well. The two women quickly shared a look that none of the men in the room could have easily interpreted before Jean-Claude said, “Well I do believe that we can offer more luxury than simply a bed with sheets.” He then helped Alex to her feet and gently pulled her to his right side so that he could pass her off to Jason as he continued, “And I’m sure that Jason would be more than happy to see to fulfilling all that you desire. _F_ _aits de beaux r êves_.”

“ _Merci_ ,” she replied with a soft blush spreading across her cheeks. “I don’t think I will, but if I find myself wanting anything I promise that I’ll let Jason know. Thank you _mon_ _maître_ for leaving him at my disposal. I do believe that you are correct and that our next conversation will be nearly as uncomfortable as our last, but I am eager to move forward with my plans and I need your blessing to ensure their success so I cannot wait to tell you all about it. Thank you again for giving me a safe place to lay my head, even if it is just for a couple of days.”

Jean-Claude just gave her a pleasant smile in response and then he left her standing in Jason’s embrace as he lead Anita and Micah to his bedroom. Since she had found herself tucked in between Jason’s strong arms, Alex had no choice but to watch the trio walk away arm in arm with Asher and then a couple of wererat bodyguards trailing closely behind. Once they were out of view, Alex rolled her head against Jason’s chest so that she could look up into his face and ask him where she’d be sleeping for the night, but all she could do was smile softly. Jason then tilted his chin and mirrored the look on her face and forced himself not to lean down and kiss her seductively inviting lips.

At long last it was Nathaniel that finally broke the almost uncomfortable, sexually charged silence by asking, “Hey Jason, do mind if I bunk with you guys tonight? I think Anita has her hands full with the three of them and I don’t really feel like donating blood so they can have their fun.”

Jason looked up at his friend and then shrugged before fixing his eyes on Alex once again. It took a moment for her to realize what she had heard. ‘You guys’, echoed in her mind and suddenly she realized that Nathaniel had assumed (much like herself) that she as going to be sleeping with… Ahem sleeping in Jason’s room for the night and the werewolf was silently trying to ask for her permission without letting the wereleopard noticing.

She then shrugged and whispered (unnecessarily since Nathaniel could easily eavesdrop on their conversation no matter the volume at this distance), “It’s your room, so I guess that means it’s your choice.”

Since she didn’t seem opposed to the prospect of sharing a bed with the two of them again, yes the last time she had been passed out from the drugs that Dr. Lillian had given her so that she would heal, Jason wrapped her right arm around his left and then present Nathaniel with his bent right arm saying, “Of course you can bunk with us buddy, but I hope that my pigsty doesn’t traumatize you too much so that you can't get a good night’s sleep.”

Nathaniel let out a loud chuckle as he took his friend’s arm and Alex watched them with a confused look on her face as the two men just continued to laugh while they walked down the hall with her clinging to Jason's left arm unconsciously.


	4. Chapter 4

She opened her eyes to the mid-day sun that was beating down on her and then she almost immediately closed her eyes again. It wasn’t that the sun was too bright for her to handle, although it was quite vibrant since there wasn’t a cloud to be found in the azure blue sky above where she found herself sitting, she did it because she wanted to take a moment to relish the sensation of the rays shining down on her face. A soft breeze caused her hair to flutter along her back and across her face while it also kept her from overheating too soon in the beautiful weather this day was offering. Her eyes were reluctant to reopen because she was feeling so calm and relaxed for the first time in a long while and she didn’t want to let that feeling go… at least not yet.

The sound of deep, masculine laughter and the touch of two hands over her closed eyes caused her to sit up straighter and her eyes to fly open. He didn’t seem to notice her response, or maybe he started to laugh a little bit harder because of how she tensed up under his tender touch. Either way she pulled herself away from him so that she could turn to see who had joined her and disturbed her moment of tranquility, even though she hadn’t come to this spot for solitude at all.

He smiled brightly while his eyes continued to twinkle with his now silenced laughter. She gasped in a startled breath before she cheerfully cried out, “Henri! _C’est toi!”_ After hearing her nearly squealing with excitement, Henri’s smile morphed into a teasing smirk causing her to shrink back slightly as she playfully whined, “I thought my accent was sounding better…”

“Oh Lexie… _Tu es trop mignon_.” She pouted at his reply, so he leaned forward to kiss her before adding, “The accent is just like you… too cute… and absolutely beautiful.”

She smiled then opened her mouth to speak, but he once again silenced her with a kiss. For a very brief moment she tried to resist him because something didn’t feel right about what was happening right now. As he started to guide her down to the ground, she had the strangest sense of déjà vu but the caress of his soft lips against hers made her forget any thoughts except for how wonderful his lips felt against her flesh. They made her forget anything but where she knew this was leading because if she was right, she couldn’t wait to relive that event. She continued to melt in his embrace as she allowed herself to be guided to the ground. Well no, not to the soft earth that yielded a beautiful and bountiful vineyard, instead he was lowering her to a soft flannel blanket that was covering that fertile soil.

 _"Tu m'as manqué_ ,” she whispered against his lips, her voice still sounded like it was completely raw emotion in spite of its quiet volume.

Henri huffed out a laugh into her mouth then kissed her fiercely before pushing his hands into the ground to raise his face and torso high enough that he could look down at her. “We haven’t been apart that long _ma petite souris_ , how can you say you missed me so deeply?”

She smiled at hearing him call her his “little mouse” because he was the first person to show her the natural color of her hair wasn’t something to detest like she had for the majority of her life. She then wrapped her arms around his neck to try to pull him back down so that she could once again be ravished by his lips as she answered, “It’s been a long week… A very, very long week…”

“If you say so,” he replied with a tone of condescension before he complied with her wishes and kissed her once again.

As his left hand worked at undoing the buttons on the front of her pale yellow, floral printed sundress, her mind started to wander away from where she was right now.  Once he had enough buttons opened, he pushed the dress off of one of her shoulders so that he could brush his palm over her now naked breast. The instant his hand brushed over her stiffly peaked nipple, she gasped in a sharp breath and her mind suddenly went completely blank. Henri took her reaction as encouragement and moved his mouth to her chin and then he trailed his kisses down her neck and chest to her exposed breast while she just tried her best not to hyperventilate or pass out at the overwhelming sensations his causing.

She gasped again as he started to suckle at her awaiting nipple and then it hit her. It wasn’t his touch or his knowledge of her body that caused her to almost lose her breath because that was all the same as the last time this happened. No it wasn’t what he was doing that had her confused; it was what he was saying. Or more precisely it was the language he was using to try to subdue and seduce her…

“English…” She could feel his lips pull back into a smile around her tender flesh as he flicked his tongue against her nipple. “You… you’re English is almost perfect… You… you could… could barely speak… it the… last… oh God that’s good… but you…”

He used his lips, teeth and tongue on her breast to cloud her mind from being able to complete the rest of that thought. His left hand slowly moved up her leg so that it could slip under the skirt of her dress until the tips of his fingers found the edge of her lacy panties. Her breaths came in as desperate pants as his fingers eased past the elastic of the leg of her panties to make its way to her now molten center. She felt him sigh against the flesh of her breast when he felt no resistance from her body as he plunged his middle and ring fingers in to find the source of the moisture that was lubricating his way into the center of her most intimate passion and it was all that she could do not to cry out loudly at the sensation of him penetrating her body.

He released her breast with one last, lingering lick before he moved his mouth beside her ear to whisper, “What does it matter what language we speak with our mouths when the one our bodies speak needs no translation at all? Don’t you feel it Lexie? We… we were meant to fit together, no?”

The questions sounded so familiar but the language he asked them in still sounded so strange. She wanted to press him further for the truth, but he was countering those thoughts by gently pushing his hardened sex past his fingers into her inner depths. She cried out in pure ecstasy as her hands nearly ripped a hole in the blanket beneath her while she tried to find purchase to try to keep herself grounded. Henri kept his mouth by her ear so that she could feel every breath he panted out as his hips eased back and then snapped forward to plunge as deep as he could over and over again. It took only a moment for her to come back to herself so that she could prolong their first session of love making by rocking her hips in a complimentary fashion with her legs wrapped around his waist. Her hands remained fisted around the blanket so that her back remained pressed to the ground beneath her while her shapely buttocks lifted off the ground over and over again.

As she reached her first orgasm she realized that this all felt so right and yet she couldn’t help but question what was wrong. It wasn’t the picnic that followed their moment of pure, unadulterated passion or the grapes that he fed her straight from the vine while her dress remained pooled around her waist to keep her firm breasts bare to the afternoon sunlight. It wasn’t even the wine that tasted so sweet and came from the very vines underneath which they made love until the sun went down. No it was still the fact that the man she had shared all of these experiences with spoke English with a proficiency that she didn’t remember him being able to do when she originally shared these experiences with him. Her memories of him were always shrouded in the soft laughter that twinkled in his eyes when she got a phrase or word wrong in his mother tongue and yet he never tried to speak in her native language beyond the odd word here or there when she didn’t comprehend what he was trying to describe to her in his oh so perfect French. She had forbidden him from having any conversations in English until he visited her in her homeland because while she was in France she wanted to be immersed in not only their food but also in their culture and the only way that could happen was if she could converse with others as if she was a native. Henri had been all too happy to comply and “immersed” her in his French “culture” at every chance he got while they were able to find a moment alone together where they wouldn’t be caught by any sort of crowd.

“Henri… Hen-ri… HENRI!” She screamed with reckless abandon into the blue summer sky as she felt him reach his apex soon after he brought her over the edge of pure bliss once again.

She lay limply on the ground and she kept her eyes closed as she snuggled back into the blanket underneath her body. Her face nuzzled into the pillow above her head as her left arm pulled the silk blanket it was holding even tighter against her body. Her legs moved as if she would curve into a tight ball under the blanket but then her knees hit muscular legs covered by smooth, hairless, warm skin. Henri’s legs had been anything but hairless and whenever they entwined their naked bodies and limbs around each other she used to tease him about how the hair on his body tickled her. She loved that the way his body hair brushed against her skin and it became another sensation that she craved and she soon gave him the playful nickname of _mon loup-garou_. Her…

Werewolf, she thought to herself as her eyes flew open. Her eyes quickly shot up to look at the stone wall beside the bed where she had been sleeping. Bed? How did I…?

Alex forced her heart rate to slow down while she tried to take stock of where she found herself right now. It didn’t take long for her to remember that she was on a bed because that was more than a little obvious, but the owner of it took a little bit longer for her brain to recall. The silk sheets she was wrapped up in felt amazing against her the naked flesh of her legs and hands and yet she couldn’t allow herself to revel in their softness just yet. First she had to remember whose bed she was sharing and then she would allow herself to relax into the smooth silky sheets once again.

Ever so carefully she pulled the blue silk sheet from her head where she had started to create a protective cocoon so that she could feel her head was no longer on a pillow. Instead she had tried to ball herself up on the mattress of the bed with her sheet securely over her head like she had whenever she felt like she was completely alone and had to try to hide herself from the harsh realities of her world, whenever she didn’t want to have to remember that life wasn’t fair like she had since she was a young adult and had faced a loss that she never thought that she could ever live through or overcome. But that was long ago and most of the injustices she had faced in her youth seemed more and more difficult to remember why they had fundamentally changed her life every day that she got further way from them, so she forced herself to put her head back on the pillow where she was sure that she had started her night… or was that day? The room she was in had no windows so there was no way for her to know the time of day without finding a clock to tell her the time.

Still clutching the sheet in her left hand above her breasts (that were thankfully covered by a nightshirt this time around); Alex slowly turned her head to take in the room where she now found herself. Her eyes almost instantly landed on the serene face of a slumbering male with blond hair that was sleeping on his left side facing her. He didn’t seem to be as concerned about covering his nakedness and Alex only relaxed in her place when she noticed that he was wearing pajama pants. It only took a quick second of her looking at her torso for Alex to realize that she was wearing the top that matched his bottoms.

On the wings of that observation came her recollection of how she ended up dressed in such unfamiliar clothes and she couldn’t help but smile. Nathanial had quickly stripped down to a pair of light purple, silky jogging shorts once he reached Jason’s room without paying attention to anyone else in the room. Jason started to undress immediately as well, but he paused just as quickly when he saw Alex nearly cowering beside the door. It just took Alex looking down at her feet for Jason to realize that she probably didn’t have anything suitable for “sleepwear” with her right now, or if she did he was sure that it fell into the category of ‘needs to be washed’, especially given her negative reaction to trying to find something to wear after her relaxing bath so that she could talk with Anita.

He then pulled out his favorite set of pajamas from a pile of clothes by his dresser and passed her the shirt of the set saying, “It should be long enough to act like a night shirt for you… That is if… if you need or…”

“Thank you,” she replied over the rest of his words taking the shirt from him, trying her best not to make it look like she was snatching it from his hand. “I think it will be better than perfect. Hell it’s silk so how can it not feel good?” She looked down at the color then smiled and added with a self-deprecating tone, “But I’m not sure of this color will do anything for my complexion, so don’t hold that against me, okay?”

Jason laughed and replied, “I won’t” as Nathaniel chuckled then said, “We won’t, especially since we’re just sleeping here today right guys?”

Alex froze at the end of the bed now that she was just wearing Jason’s night shirt and a pair of panties because she wasn’t sure how to take Nathaniel’s comment. He had made himself comfortable on the bed while the other two remained standing somewhat uncomfortable beside the bed. He then caught Jason’s eye because he seemed to realize that he may have misspoken when trying to tease them into just getting into bed to go to sleep, so Jason smiled at him and gave him a slight shake of his head to ease his friend’s mind. He knew that he probably shouldn’t have allowed himself to give in to any sexual innuendo since he knew it wasn’t going to be able to go anywhere, even if Nathaniel wasn’t sharing a bed with them tonight, but Jason just couldn’t help himself, it was too natural for him to flirt. The discomfort they were feeling in the room was because of Jason, or so he saw it, and he was more than willing to shoulder the burden of easing it so that they could all share his bed for some much needed sleep.

“The color can’t ruin your complexion in the dark,” Jason finally commented as he held a hand out to Alex. “Now come on, we all deserve a proper night’s sleep after everything we’ve been through over the last few days.”

As she took his hand Alex stole a glance at Nathaniel who was snuggling down into the bed with his eyelids looking like he couldn’t keep them open. She then realized that while she was passed out from the pain of her injuries these two men had been awake and helping her to heal. They had given their energy to her to help her mend her wounds while she slept so it made perfect sense that they would need to sleep to reenergize more than she did right now and she felt like an absolute ass for not recognizing it sooner. How ungrateful could she be? How self-centered was she not to think of other’s needs?

As those thoughts started racing through her mind she let Jason help her into his bed and she was somewhat surprised that Nathaniel immediately pulled her into his arms. Much like the first time she woke up in a bed at the Circus of the Damned, Alex found her back pressed against the naked torso of a lycanthrope (albeit it a wereleopard this time around) while another shapeshifter pulled himself to her front (this time around it was a werewolf not an Alpha wereleopard) with his arm draped across her waist and over to the back of the man behind her.

Alex tried her best not to acknowledge how her body was reacting to how close Jason was to her so she made sure to address Nathaniel first saying, “Sweet dreams Nathaniel. Thank you for everything that you’ve done for me… Please try to get some sleep.” She felt the weight of the man behind her settle more solidly into the mattress after she finished speaking so she turned her attention to the man in front of her and tried her best to keep her voice as bland and as calm as possible. “You need to sleep too Jason… I know you all shared energy with me, so please, please try to get some rest now… Please?”

Jason could hear the tears that she was trying to keep from forming leak out in her voice so he simply settled against his pillow then whispered, “I promise I will. Good night Alex.”

As she settled herself against the pillow now that she was awake she couldn’t help but smile when she saw that Jason was still wearing the pants that matched the shirt that she had borrowed to sleep in. The reason she could see that was a fact and not just an assumption based on how they had started the night was because she had stolen away the majority of the blankets which left him with none, not that he seemed to be bothered by it at all. She then ghosted a hand over his face reveling in how peaceful his face looked in this moment. She still felt like he was her guardian angel for finding her and rescuing her, but she didn’t want to admit that to anyone else, herself included to some degree, just yet because she still wasn’t sure that they were going to let her stay here in St. Louis. Alex didn’t want to let herself get her hopes up just to have then crushed simply because Anita and Jean-Claude didn’t accept her proposal, so she tried to remind herself to maintain some distance. But in this moment when she was by herself and alone with her crazy thoughts she did allow herself a moment of weakness where she admitted that she couldn’t have gotten through the night before without him (and Nathaniel, but for some reason he was forgotten right now) holding her while she cried and that she didn’t want to have to get through the next day without him by her side either.

Alex let her hand drift closer and closer to Jason’s face as she continued to run it up and down the side of his exposed profile and forced herself to stop before she actually touched his skin. She forced herself to pull her hand back to her side and then she fisted her hand in the silk blanket covering her to keep herself from reaching out to Jason again too soon. But no matter what her hands were doing, her eyes remained fixated on what she could see of his face. She had so many things she wanted to tell him and to share with him, but it seemed silly to her to believe that this relative stranger would want to hear all she had to say even though his actions appeared to support her ludicrous theories.

Before she could stop herself, Alex found that she had moved her face closer and closer to Jason’s. He was sleeping with his head on his pillow but his face was tilted down towards the mattress so she had to dip her face lower so that she could reach his lips and suddenly she was placing a not so gentle, gracious kiss against his lips. Alex hadn’t meant for her kiss to lead anywhere, hell she hadn’t meant to kiss Jason at all, so she didn’t have to fake that she startled in her place when his hand shot up to keep her from moving back too far from him too fast as he deepened their embrace.

Jason kept his hand on the nape of her neck as he opened his eyes to double check that it was in fact Alex that he had been kissing. As much as he loved Nathaniel, Jason wasn’t looking to wake up making out with him because he really didn’t swing that way and definitely preferred his partners to be of the female persuasion. That was unless whatever was happening was a group effort then… well that was a different story. He was still looking for someone that he could give himself to completely but one thing he had learned since his break up with Perdita was that he needed someone that would accept all of him and would give herself to him as completely as well. Was Alex that woman? He still wasn’t sure, but he was willing to put himself out there to find out which was why he didn’t hesitate to reclaim her lips in a passionate embrace after he had received confirmation that it was the female werewolf and not the beautiful wereleopard that he was sharing his bed with that he had been kissing.

Jason kept his right hand on the back of Alex’s neck to keep her mouth connected to his while his left hand found her shoulder so that he could gently push on it to guide her onto her back onto the bed. Alex didn’t protest at first and just attacked his mouth with the same fervor that he was working his tongue and lips against her own. As soon as her left hand touched his shoulder to pull him on top of her once she was laying on her back Alex remembered that they hadn’t come to this bed alone, there was someone else that was going to be on the other side of her trying to sleep right now. She had been reluctant to kiss Jason because she didn’t want to make any promises to him that she couldn’t keep, but more to that she didn’t want to be a jerk and start making out with one man while another was on the bed to just look on. Her hand gripped Jason’s flesh tightly and then she had to force herself not to pull him forward and to shove him away gently. Her action must have been too soft because it hadn’t deterred Jason in the slightest and he continued to almost eat her mouth even though she had stopped participating in the kiss by this point.

With another more insistent push against Jason’s shoulder, Alex threw her head back and away from his continued attack on her mouth. He took that action as her relenting to his embraces and moved to kiss her neck, but Alex threw her hand up over his mouth to block his lips from reaching her flesh as she nearly hissed out, “Stop Jason! Just… stop. I shouldn’t have… We… we can’t do this with your friend on the bed with us.”

Jason shook his head, but Alex kept her hand clamped over his mouth so he wasn’t actually able to reply. Her muscles relaxed slightly, but her eyes held nothing but guilt and self-reproach that Jason knew he had to erase as soon as possible. Since she was moving to lay down again on her own, he used her own momentum to press her into the mattress. He then wrapped his right hand around her forearm to guide it away from his face so that he could press it into the space that Nathaniel had previously been sleeping. It took her a moment before her hand fisted the sheet underneath of it and then what Jason was trying to tell her came clear, there was no one in the bed but the two of them right now.

“He… we’re…”

“Alone,” Jason whispered as he lowered his mouth to hers once again.

Alex opened her legs just wide enough so that Jason could settle the lower half of his body on the mattress instead of on her thighs. Her right hand ran its way up the back of his head until it reached the top of his head where her fingers gripped his short hairs tightly. He swallowed her moan and nearly issued his own when he felt her start to give in completely to his caresses. Alex tried not to sound too needy, but she couldn’t help it as her left hand moved over Jason’s shoulder and down his back to try to press him even closer to her body. His lips, his tongue, his skin, hell his hair all felt even more amazing against her body than she had imagined they would and she silently said a prayer begging to anyone that would listen to let this not be a one-time thing, to let her find a home here so that she could wake up like this on a daily basis, to let him be a more permanent part of her life than she had ever thought that she had needed before.

Jason continued to thrust his tongue into Alex’s mouth as his left hand worked the buttons on her shirt open because there were other places he wanted to feel his lips and tongue caressing. Alex didn’t seem to notice what he was doing until his hand slipped through the open buttons to reach in an take a firm, yet tender hold of one of her bare breasts. The instant his palm brushed over her now stiffly peaked nipple Alex’s head fell back against a pillow while she moaned out some unintelligible words.

“Jason… Jason…” She gasped out as his mouth moved to work on the flesh of her throat en route to her other breast that was now bare to the room. “J-J-Jay-son…”

He hummed out some noises of agreement while Alex repeated his name until it sounded like she was actually protesting, not praising his efforts.  “Jason please… please we have to stop… please…” Jason was so lost in the heat and scent of her skin that he didn’t hear the words that continued to spill out of her mouth. When she realized that he wasn’t planning on putting an end to licking and kissing her body any time soon, Alex started to struggle more earnestly to get out from under him. “Stop… stop… Jay—son…stop…” She repeated more insistently as she started to punch his shoulder a little bit harder with every word. Her right hand then fisted his hair uncomfortably tight as she yanked his head back nearly growling, “I said ‘stop’ Jason!”

Her eyes had bleed into her amber, orange wolf eyes while her power started to fill the room which confused Jason even more as he asked, “Why? No one is going to interrupt us.”

Alex scoffed loudly then shoved him again hard enough that she was finally able to get his body off of her. Once she was free she sat up with her back facing him and she quickly went to work at covering her flesh by re-buttoning the front of her shirt while her power receded without any conscious effort on her part at all. Jason remained on his side as he watched her put as much distance as she could between them without getting off the bed and he felt his face scrunch up into a confused scowl.  Had he read her advances wrong? She was the one that kissed him first, right? Didn’t that mean that she was the one that had initiated this physical aspect of their relationship because she wanted him the same way that he wanted her? Or had he completely misinterpreted what had happened and where she wanted this to lead?

“It isn’t that,” she nearly whispered to her hands that were holding two of the now fastened buttons on the front of her borrowed shirt.

Jason expected her to continue her explanation but she fell silent after that short, soft admission. Her shoulders started to shake with silent tears falling down her face causing Jason to sit up and reach out a tentative hand toward her back, but he kept himself from actually touching her just in case she would react negatively to his touch right now.

“Alex, hey… Please don’t cry, we can stop… that’s okay, but I…” He scooted his body closer to her and still kept from touching her as he laid back down on his side and curved his neck to try to see her face saying, “But I thought… I mean I don’t understand why you wanted to stop. It felt amazing to me, didn’t it for you?”

“It did,” Alex quietly admitted without moving her head at all. Jason could see the conflict on her face, so he finally chanced to reach out a hand to touch her, but she didn’t notice it (or maybe she did) because she jumped up off the bed.

She started to pace along the length of the mattress as she swiped her now curly hair from leaving it in a tight bun to dry back and tried to tuck it behind her ears almost angrily. Jason watched her pace with a concerned eye and he tried to think of a way to soothe her obviously worried mind. He sat up in the spot that Alex had just vacated and opened his mouth to speak but closed it again because he realized that honestly didn’t know what to say to her right now. She had kissed him first and admitted that his embraces had felt as incredible for her as it had for him, so why was he sitting here feeling like he had to find the right words to apologize to her?

“I… I can’t…” She started timidly after she stopped pacing and stood in front of where Jason was now seated. He looked up at her but she studiously kept her eyes focused on her hands that were wringing the hem of her night shirt. “What I mean is that I haven’t, you know, since I was turned. I… I’ve heard that shifting during... uhh the act can happen, so I haven’t so that I won’t hurt someone.” Jason sighed out an “Oh Alex” that she ignored because she quickly added a hesitant, “Plus…”

She trailed off and fell silent as she started to pace once again. Jason then stood up and caught her arm and forced her to look at him so that he could ask, “Plus what?”

“Plus…” She started, still refusing to make eye contact with Jason by watching the toes of her right foot dig a hole in the carpet. This room like every other one she had been in seemed to have some sort of plush carpeting and she couldn’t help but wonder how difficult that must have been to do. She had had fun watching her uncle and dad lay down new carpeting in their den when she was younger because her dad got so frustrated a few times that it was all he could do not to curse a blue streak in front of her which caused her to giggle constantly. That job had looked to be pretty difficult and all that her dad and uncle did was replace the carpeting, so she couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to lay down new carpet down onto carved stone. But then again Jean-Claude was the Master of the City and he seemed to have unlimited funds, so that must have helped when trying to find someone that could do the job right and to keep them from complaining about any difficulties they might encounter too much.

Jason couldn’t tell by the look on her face if Alex’s mind had started to wander from the topic at hand or if she was just avoiding his questions. If it was the latter he wasn’t sure if he wanted to press her to explain herself anymore because he was becoming less and less sure that he wanted to hear it. It wasn’t that he was being callous and uncaring, he just wasn’t sure that his heart or mind could handle what she had to say, especially if she was going to say anything else that would be her rejecting him completely. He started to release her biceps and slide his hand down her arm when suddenly Alex’s hand gripped his wrist to keep him from walking away from her.

“Plus what if…?” She tried again with a quiet, uncertain voice. Jason moved his eyes away from where she was holding his arm up to her face and was somewhat shocked to see that Alex had started crying again. With a bent finger he lifted her chin up so that they could make eye contact. Although she didn’t try to tilt her chin down again, Alex did cast her eyes away from Jason’s face as she continued just above a whisper, “What if I don’t get to stay? What if they don’t like what I have to say and I have to keep moving just like I have for the last year?” She took in a deep, shaky breath and then locked gazes with Jason once again. “I… I don’t want to start something that we can’t finish. I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have kissed you, especially knowing that I might be leaving again. That wasn’t fair of me… I hope you can forgive me.”

“Alex there’s nothing to forgive,” Jason replied as he pulled her into a tight hug. At first Alex resisted him by remaining completely rigid in his arms, but he wouldn’t relent so she reluctantly placed her head on his shoulder as she relaxed in his arms. Jason could feel her tears dripping onto his skin, so he started to pet the back of her head to try to soothe her. “Even if they don’t like your proposal, which I don’t foresee them disliking at all by the way, that doesn’t mean you have to leave. We’ll find something else for you to do here in St. Louis so that you can settle down and make your home here.”

Alex pushed back against Jason’s chest, but not so hard that it would appear like she was trying to leave his warm, comforting embrace. She looked up into his compassion filled eyes and swallowed back a sob so that she could say, “You really believe that don’t you?”

“Yes, I do,” he answered with a smile that silently said ‘how can you not believe that?’.

Alex started to look a bit more relaxed, so Jason leaned down to kiss her again but just before their lips could touch Alex flinched and moved her head a little bit farther back and to the side to make sure that their lips would not reconnect. Since she had kept her left hand on his bare shoulder and her right on his waist just above his pajama pants, Jason took her reaction as her way of asking him to slow down. She seemed alright with physical closeness such as a hug, so instead of trying to kiss her again he just slipped his hands around her waist and pulled himself closer to her in a chaste, reassuring hug. In order for her to be more comfortable she would have to move her right hand to his shoulder and Jason held his breath until he felt the silk of her sleeve brush against the side of his neck.

She let out a heavy sigh of relief against his pecks as she placed her cheek to his chest and then rubbed it back and forth softly. If Jason could believe that this could work then Alex was willing to put in some effort in order not to do anything that might screw things up completely. Although she was sure that that was going to take a lot of work on her end because she wasn’t used to depending on people like she had needed to after becoming a werewolf. She was used to being the one in charge who gave orders without being questioned but now she was the one that was needing to play the role of subordinate and fall into line of another leader, or more precisely leaders in the case of the group she wanted to join in St. Louis. Although if everything played out right then she would be the supreme leader of one area of her life once again and so long as there was one place that she was the one giving the orders then maybe she would feel more like her old self again while continuing to adapt to being her ‘new self’ as a lycanthrope.

While Alex gently rubbed her cheek against his chest, Jason reciprocated by running his hands up and down her back. They both seemed to feel comfortable with each other and didn’t have to say anything else, but a thought suddenly struck Jason and he couldn’t help but chuckle before he quietly said against her hair, “Of course you still have to meet our Ulfric, so you might actually change your mind and want to take off after that.”

Alex’s flung her head back with so quickly and with so much force that she almost bashed the back of her skull against Jason’s chin with a more than bruising force. The look on her face caused Jason to bark out a laugh before he leaned down and pecked her lips before she could react to what he was doing. “I’m just kidding… sort of… But fair warning he can be a bit of a jerk sometimes so we’ll all help you to try to win him over so that you can join our pack. But first, why don’t you jump in the shower, I have to go and fulfil my duties as _pomme de sang_ right now. When you’re done come and meet us all in the living room, okay?”

“Alright,” Alex replied as she went up to her tip toes to rub her right cheek against his left. “And thank you again for everything.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

After her shower Alex returned to Jason’s room wrapped in a towel and had thought that she was just going to wear the same outfit that she had the day before, but there was a surprise waiting for her on Jason’s bed. While she was just on the other side of his bathroom door, someone had come into Jason’s room to make the bed and leave some clothes for her on it.  There were a couple of pairs of jean capris, tank tops that looked like the same style as the ones she had received the day before, underwear in a variety of colors and styles and to her surprise a couple of wrap around dresses. She picked up a dress that looked like it was a deep royal purple, but on closer inspection she could see that it actually had very small polka dots in a slightly lighter purple color. It looked very similar to the style of dress she had worn whenever she had been asked to make television appearances in what felt like was a life time ago. How could Jean-Claude or his people have known that this was her favorite style of dress?

Nathaniel, she thought to herself with a fond smile on her face. It still felt odd that he would treat her like she was some kind of a celebrity when she was the one who was in such awe of being in the presence of the Executioner, the best known Master of the City in the country and their entourage who were no less famous in their own right. But as she slipped the dress on over a fairly plain black cotton bra and panty set Alex couldn’t help but be thankful that she had at least one fan amongst this group and she hoped that that meant that she’d have more than one ally in her corner as well while she tried to convince all of them that she could be a valuable asset to their community.

She stepped into the bathroom to check her reflection as she dried her shoulder length brunette locks with the towel it had been wrapped in. The color of the dress helped to bring out the minute flecks of brown in her eyes to make them look a little less alien. She brushed out her hair to let it air dry and for a brief moment she wished that she had some makeup with her to complete her outfit because she had never put on a dress before without it being some sort of special occasion and she always felt more dressed up if her face was made up as well. But that thought soon gave away to a more practical concern… shoes to go on her bare feet.

She hung the towel on the rack in the bathroom and then returned to Jason’s bed to check to see if the ‘clothing elf’ had left her anything to go on her feet. There were a few pairs of jogging socks beside the capris that she was sure could be worn with her own tennis shoes that were so old and worn out that they were falling apart. She sighed dejectedly when she didn’t see any footwear right away that would go with what she was wearing and then picked up a silver/grey cardigan to slip over her dress and was turning to leave the room when something at the end of the bed caught her eyes.

Much to her surprise and relief there were three pairs of different colors of sneakers, two pairs of black leather clogs and four pairs of sandals that looked like they could be worn with something a bit dressier waiting for her there. She was beyond relieved to see that there were no high heels in the mix because she had always felt awkward whenever she went to an event where her outfit required her to wear heels, although she would wear them on the odd occasion and she tried to keep her complaints to a minimum while at those events. She almost wondered how they knew her preference and she could only assume that she once again had Nathaniel to thank for knowing that she didn’t bode well when she wore anything with a heel on her feet.

She picked out a pair of silver gladiator style sandals that looked like they were made of braided leather that she could tie around her ankles and lower claves to keep them on her feet. She then returned to the bathroom to double check how the whole ensemble looked on her and she had to smile. She felt well rested and actually looked it as well especially since the majority of the injuries on her face had healed completely. The cut above her eye was now just a thin pink line that protruded slightly on her forehead. With how fast it had already healed, Alex hoped that it meant that within the next couple of days that it would heal completely and become a distant memory that would hopefully fade into nothing as well.

After triple and quadruple checking her reflection, Alex decided that she should probably make her way to the salon area sooner than later. She was going to have to sit down and finish the conversation they had started the night before, so she thought it was better if she got out there on her own because having someone come and find her to bring her out seemed like it would be a bad start to the conversation. Plus they had offered her a roof over her head to sleep, hot water to cleanse her body and clothes to wear, so going out without making them wait for her seemed like the least that Alex could do right now to show some of her appreciation.

When she got to the living room, she found Anita, Micah and Jean-Claude once again seated on the couch. The chair that she had sat on opposite them had been replaced by a love seat that was slightly larger than two of the chairs she had sat in put together. Jason was curled up on the love seat with a dreamy look on his face and Nathaniel was curled up by Micah and Anita’s feet with a similar look on his face. Asher was seated in a chair directly to Jean-Claude’s right and the rest of the room was also once again littered with bodyguards of all shapes and sizes which Alex assumed meant that they were also lycanthropes of a variety of different species.

There was a blond male that she recognized but had yet to be introduced to standing between two food carts. One cart had a variety of beverages ranging from coffee and tea to any fruit juice a person could ask for. The other had biscuits, cooked Canadian bacon, fried eggs and a variety of condiments to accompany those breakfast foods. Alex gave everyone in the room a tentative smile and couldn’t help but think that if this was their idea of breakfast that she had some work to do. She never liked to boast about her talents but she had always been able to take the most mundane ingredients to transform them into something that most people, critics included, called ‘mind-blowing’. When she looked at the cart of food she forced herself not to critique or try to come up with recipes to enhance what was there because that seemed ungrateful. Instead she just smiled and remained cemented in her spot until someone spoke to her to tell her what to do next.

Jean-Claude had been the first to notice her reluctance to move further into the room because he motioned towards the two food trays with a graceful gesture with his right hand that she had never witnessed anyone else use before while saying, “Please help yourself _ma gamine_. The coffee is hot and fresh and although the food is not gourmet I do hope you enjoy it.”

Alex nodded then unconsciously answered, “ _Merci…_ _Je suis sûr que_ _ça va être super_ _…”_ She then looked up to see the confused looks on everyone’s faces but Jean-Claude and Asher so she quickly added, “Oh… uhh… thank you, but I’m sure it will all be great. I’ve really missed starting my day with a good cup of coffee.”

Jean-Claude let out that touchable laugh that made her whole body tingle and she noticed that she wasn’t the only one that was affected by it. Although the look on Anita’s face told her that she wasn’t happy to share in the pleasure that Alex was obviously feeling before their master replied, “Well _ma petite_ insists on starting her day with nothing but the best cup of coffee that can be found in St. Louis, so I hope it holds up to your standards as well.”

Anita looked a little bit more annoyed then started to refute his statement saying, “I don’t insist…” Her eyes caught the amused look on Micah’s face and she more petulantly added, “I don’t… Shut up, bad coffee is just horrible and should never be inflicted on anyone, ever.”

Alex snickered then replied, “I hear you there. Growing up where I did coffee was a way of life and not just a beverage, so hearing that people will accept something inferior makes me cringe too.” Her comical reply caused Anita to smile which Alex took as a good sign. “And again thank you for all of this,” the werewolf added motioning to her body and then to the carts of food. “I didn’t expect to be treated with such… hospitality.”

“It’s nothing _ma gamine_. Please do take a moment to enjoy some food and coffee before we continue what was started last night,” Jean-Claude interjected before anyone else could say anything.

Alex then moved stiffly towards the awaiting blond who had poured her an oversized cup of coffee. She took it from him with a soft smile and added some sugar and cream to it before she quickly placed a biscuit, piece of cheese and round of Canadian bacon onto a plate. She had been told that she had to eat a balanced meal more than three times a day to keep her beast from flaring up and wreaking havoc on her life by the werewolves that had betrayed her and much to her surprise Jason, Nathaniel and Micah had confirmed that what she consumed in her human form could affect when and if her beast would emerge.

As she moved to sit on the love seat on the opposite side where Jason was still curled up in a ball with a bliss-filled look on his face, her eyes kept flicking over to the curly haired blond standing behind the beverage cart. Jean-Claude, Asher and Anita watched Alex’s movements until she sat down with an attentive eye, but Micah’s gazed followed Alex’s to the man that seemed to cause her some apprehension as she sat down.

“Alex, that’s Stephen. He’s a member of the pack… of the Thronnos Rokke clan… He was in the bed with us sharing energy to help you heal before you woke up,” the Nimir-Raj explained causing Alex to relax completely into her place once she was seated.

After she placed her plate and mug onto an awaiting wooden table beside the sofa on the, Alex turned her attention to Stephen to say, “You left too fast for me to thank you for your efforts, so thank you Stephen… I truly do appreciate you curling up around my legs to lend your energy to me so that my injuries would heal. It was too much to ask from a stranger, but I do sincerely appreciate that you would do it for me.”

Stephen smiled but before he spoke his eyes flicked over to Anita’s face. Alex didn’t miss that Anita nodded softly before he spoke, but she decidedly kept silent as she heard, “It’s what we do for someone from the pack… I’m happy that I could help.”

But I’m not from your pack, Alex thought to herself sadly as she raised her coffee to her lips. She knew that that comment wasn’t anywhere close to being helpful, so she kept it to herself while she continued to enjoy her coffee. Now that she was in front of her awaiting audience she no longer felt like she was going to be able to pick up where she left off. She instead focused all of her attention on the food she had gotten herself to eat for now.

She carefully tore her biscuit in two and then she placed her Canadian back and cheese between the two halves to make a modified sandwich. After she took a generous bite out of the food she heard herself hum out a noise of enjoyment a little bit louder than she had meant to causing her eyes that she hadn’t even realized she had closed to shoot open wide.

Practically everyone in the room had a look of amusement on their face ranging from mild to extreme including the guards, Jean-Claude and Asher much to her surprise. Well everyone did except for Anita. She still looked like she was suspicious of all of Alex’s actions and words. The looks on all of their faces made her realize that she was probably even louder than she had initially thought she had been, so she figured that she should say something to keep her from sounding like she was a totally idiot like she was currently feeling.

“These biscuits are homemade… aren’t they?”

Nathaniel sat up a bit straighter in his spot and looked a bit more alert as he answered, “How can you tell?”

Alex finished chewing the large bite of food in her mouth and swallowed before answering, “It’s flaky, buttery and still so moist that there’s no way these came from any sort of package.” She took a moment to look at the last of her breakfast sandwich in her right hand before she added, “Can I assume it was your skilled hand that made these Nathaniel?”

He nodded rapidly with a bright smile on his face. Alex then praised him saying, “You definitely have a talent for baking… it’s never been my strong suit… maybe one day you can show me how you made these so fluffy. Mine have always come out a little flat, no matter what I do.”

Somehow Nathaniel’s smile widen and became even brighter before he replied, “Me…? Teach you…?” He blushed then dipped his head bashfully, “If you think I might be able to teach you something I guess I would be happy to show you what I know. But you’re the world famous chef, so I’m not sure that there’s much that you could learn from me.”

Alex blushed at his over-exaggerated compliment then meekly replied, “No matter the notoriety someone receives, they should never be too proud to learn from other’s experiences…” She then turned her eyes so that she could only see Nathaniel because her next words felt too raw to share with everyone else in the room. “At least that’s what my parents always told me before I lost them.”

Nathaniel’s eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise because he had become such a fan of Lexie Hughes’ work that he considered himself a bit of an expert when it came to trivia about her. He knew pretty much everything there was to know about her professional life but in that moment he realized that he didn’t know much about her personal life. In all of the interviews that he could recall she had been sure to steer all conversation away from her childhood or any romances that may or may not be brewing. He had always thought that she was just wanting to keep those details private like many other celebrities, but now he was wondering if there might be another reason why she had so closed lipped about the events of her past.

He of course knew that now wasn’t the time for him to bring up the questions that started to plague his thoughts because he had heard Anita telling Jean-Claude that they needed to clarify a few things about Alex’s proposal before they agreed to anything. Nathaniel wasn’t too concerned about the business side of things because it didn’t really have any bearing on his immediate life, but he was curious about the questions Anita and Jean-Claude had about Alex not trying to settle in with any other packs around the country. He had also noticed how his best friend had seemed to drawn to this newcomer, so he was genuinely wanting to find out more about her plans for the future to make sure that they included a spot for a certain werewolf that he admired.

They all then continued eating their food in silence while the vampires and bodyguards looked on. Alex could feel the weight of everything she had left unsaid pressing down on her while she savored the last few drops of her coffee. She still wasn’t sure that she was ready to dive back into the deep end, so to speak, but the food she had eaten was settling into her stomach and the caffeine in the coffee started to course through her veins so she had energy that she needed to expel somehow and talking seemed like a better alternative to breaking down and sobbing like she had the last time she sat in this room.

After she finished her coffee Alex looked over in Jason’s direction to check on his current demeanor. To her relief he no longer looked like he was a damsel swooning over her knight in shining armor and he was instead standing up filling up a plate with two or three of everything from the food cart. After his plate was filled to near overcapacity, Jason sat down on the love seat and placed the plateful of food on the cushion between Alex and himself. She has an amused grin on her face, so he passed her one of Nathaniel’s home-made biscuits without her having to ask or say anything else to him.

As Alex worked at eating the pastry in her hand as slowly as possible (not only because she wanted to savor it, but she didn’t want to look too eager for it either), Asher shared a look with Jean-Claude that no one else noticed.  After receiving an imperceptible nod from the Master of the City Asher turned his attention to the young werewolf to say, “Alex… _notre jeune louve…_ now that you’ve  had some nourishment for your body, may I be so bold as to inquire about how you found yourself here in St. Louis? Or more precisely, can you go into more detail about the proposal you have sent our Master and his… Anita?”

Alex swallowed hard to finish off the food she had in her mouth and then she took a deep drink from her coffee mug that Stephen had refilled without her having to ask before she replied, “Of course you may Asher…” She set her dishes carefully onto the tray to her right before her hand clasped the hem of her sweater in a white knuckle hold while she tried to put her thoughts into some kind of chronological order. “Alright so as you all seem to already know, I’ve spent the past year and a bit on the road… Although contrary to what many of you might think, I haven’t really spent much time with any one pack, well except for the Rainwater Clan… The one that my…attacker is a member of in the Puget Sound… I did spend some time with The Oak Tree Clan in Tennessee and almost petitioned Roxanne and Verne to join them but…” She paused then to swallow back a sob and jumped slightly when she felt Jason take her left hand into his. Alex kept from looking at him directly because she worried that she would get distracted if she looked him in the face right now, but she did flash him a grateful smile. “But someone from the Washington pack found me there so I ran and started making my way here sooner than I had expected.”

“And that’s when you met up with the humans that beat you nearly to death,” Anita stated, as opposed to ask, in a bland, professional tone. It didn’t take much for Anita slip into Marshall-mode even though she knew that she was supposed to be playing the part of Lupa and Human Servant which meant that she needed to be softer and more caring. “I… I mean that’s when you ended up hitchhiking to travel up to here?”

“Yes,” Alex replied in a soft uncertain voice. She almost wanted to drop down to her knees and beg Anita’s forgiveness again, but the shift in her Alpha’s tone caused her to pause and collect herself to sound more confident. “I had hoped to stay with Verne’s pack long enough to save up for a bus ticket because I had pawned my laptop, the last thing I owned of any value, to buy some new clothes… Shit that I left behind in Tennessee…” Alex let out a self-deprecating laugh and forced herself not to react when Jason slid his arm behind her back so that their bodies would be pressed together from shoulder to hip. At first Alex thought of struggling out of his hold but then she just as quickly thought better of rejecting his offer of comfort and melted slightly against his side. “But that’s just stuff, it can be replaced… Anyways even when I wasn’t trying to find a pack to join I ended up talking with a lot of werewolves… I’m sorry I never really thought that any other animal would talk to me so I was kind of prejudice about only speaking to wolves, I wish I hadn’t done that now because the leopards here seem pretty awesome…”

Nathaniel flashed Alex a brilliant smile while Micah nodded then said, “We try to treat everyone as equals here no matter what their fur may look like during the full moon.”

“Well this is the first place that I’ve ever seen it work so fluidly and harmoniously. It truly is amazing what you have done here. But again I digress…” Alex praised before she forced herself to sit up straight in her seat and pull ever so slightly away from Jason’s side. “So anyways… the one thing that I learned is that most shifters, well at least the ones I got to talk to, are so conflicted about what we are because they feel like they can’t be honest about their true selves… I mean that once I figured out what had happened to me I knew that I couldn’t  go back to my restaurant to continue my work because I knew that if anyone found out that I… it, the restaurant would be ruined. It sounds horrible to me, especially now, but I knew that no one would want to come into my establishment if they knew that a werewolf was in the back preparing their food…”

Jason pressed Alex even closer into his side when he heard her voice start to break while Nathaniel got up and wedged himself between the sofa’s arm and Alex’s body on her right side. Anita watched both of them try to comfort Alex which caused her to rethink her instinctive first reaction. She had wanted to lash out at Alex and demand that she explain what she meant to say, but she noticed that the werewolf wasn’t intentionally being obtuse and vague for fun, but instead she was having issues putting her thoughts into words, so she instead tried to prompt her to finish her thought by saying, “Yes we’ve heard that from a few lycanthropes that we’ve dealt with here in town. I’m sorry that you felt that way Alex, but…but I am intrigued to know how you’ve decided to turn that horrible situation into a positive experience.”

“It took a bit for me to recognize it…” Alex admitted as if she had just been admonished even though everyone in the room with her had been nothing but supportive. “So after talking with Marianne and spending some time on my own in the woods of Tennessee I think I came up with the perfect solution. What if we gave people like myself a place to express themselves? What if there was a restaurant where everyone that step foot into it knew that the chef, sous-chef, servers and maître d’ were all lycanthropes? Or possibly were shapeshifters? Then I heard about what was happening here and I started to wonder how many vampires had some sort of culinary prowess before they were turned and had never had a chance to continue that avenue of… uhh… life…”

Alex then grumbled, “Sounds so stupid…” to her lap and started to retreat into herself before Nathaniel cheerfully asked, “Is your proposal to run a fully shifter and vampire runned restaurant that is out in the open?”

“Yes,” Alex whispered to her lap as Jean-Claude replied, “That is what I understood it to be, which is why I granted Ms. Hughes an audience.”

It took Alex a moment to catch her breath before Jean-Claude could catch her eye and when he did he laughed softly then said, “Now please do tell us all the name that you came up with your proposed establishment as well as the interesting… how do you say? Niche that you came up with it as well _ma gamine_.”

“Well before I learned that some vampires had people or shifters that they fed on on a daily basis I thought it would be… unique to have blood or donors available in the restaurant for vampires to feast on. I had learned that many vampires had humans they were close to so I wondered what they did for a normal sort of date night… I mean if they went out for dinner the human would eat but their companion would what? Just sit there and watch them?” As Alex spoke she seemed to gain more and more confidence and soon she was sitting up in her seat and seemed to have forgotten he two men that had been giving her some comfort. “So I thought there could be a part of the dining area where a vampire could get the blood from the source… Well from willing volunteers that work for us that is…” She then took a moment to the reactions of the men and woman around her before she recanted softly, “But now I understand how disrespectful that is… A _pomme de sang_ isn’t something that I’ve ever heard of or I would have never have proposed something that sounds so impolitic… I swear I wouldn’t…”

Everyone heard the terror that was trying to creep into Alex’s voice while she explained her proposal and much to everyone’s surprise it was Anita that silenced her self-deprecating mummers by saying, “That does sound intriguing and I’m sure there are a few weres in town that would happily take on the role of waiter slash snack for the right price which leads me to wonder what you would like to call this restaurant of yours…”

“Ours,” Alex corrected automatically. “It wouldn’t truly be mine, not like my place was in Seattle, because I would just be the chef, Jean-Claude and you all would be the owners and I would just come up with the menu… Anyway I thought that if we could offer treats to humans, lycanthropes and vampires alike then an appropriate name could be ‘Tasty Morsels’.”

“Hmmm,” Asher replied. “That name is both sensual and literal since I can assume that _notre petite jeune louve_ can prepare a meal that would cause anyone to salivate.”

The look the golden haired vampire gave Alex sent a shiver down her spine to which she playfully countered, “Oh I can prepare the meal if you give me the ingredients.” She then caught herself and corrected her demeanor as she added, “I mean… Not to boast or anything but I was trained to create a five course meal around just two or three ingredients that had to be on the menu so I feel fairly confident that I could create a varied menu for the humans or shifters that want to frequent the restaurant.”

“And for the vampires?” Jean-Claude enquired with more than a hint of humor in his voice.

Alex blushed then dipped her head to look at the rug on the floor as she replied, “Well that would be where I would need help… we would need help. I’ve been able to find a way to serve blood in a wine glass and make it look like an expensive glass of red wine, but it would require people to be willing donors. I know that by petitioning yourself and your human servant might alienate me from the wolves of the pack in town, but I… I just thought that it was the best way to start.”

Everyone in the room, including the guards, barked out an almost uncomfortable laugh before Jean-Claude regained his composure and said, “Yes petitioning our Ulfric can appear to be more burdensome than appealing to myself and _ma petite_ , but in order for your proposal to work at its best we will require the Ulfric’s cooperation… _Alors je l’ai invité ici_.”

Jean-Claude purposefully explained the last bit of his statement in French so that only Alex and Asher would totally understand what he was saying right now. Of course soon after his statement of telling Alex that he had invited the Ulfric to their current location everyone in the room felt the swell of power that proceeded the entrance of the Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke clan. The lycanthropes in the room, security guards included, felt goose bumps up and down their flesh and the air around them became hard to breathe but the vampires in the room didn’t seem to react at all.

Jason leaned into Alex’s side and whispered, “Don’t worry Alex, you have everyone else on board with the idea, I can tell, so now you just have to get our Ulfric to agree.”

Alex almost flippantly replied, “Easy as pie” but then she caught the looks on everyone’s face, including Anita, and she knew that she was wrong. The easy part was over and now she had to convince someone she had tried to ignore would turn out to be someone that she could trust and believe in to realize her dream.

It took a great deal of will power but soon Alex had pried herself away from Jason and Nathaniel's comforting embraces so that she was standing in front of the love seat of her own accord. She then took a moment to smooth out the skirt of her dress and straightened out the sweater she wore over it in order to try to keep her hands busy.

Once she felt like her clothing was back in its proper place, Alex made her way around the love seat towards the power that her potential Ulfric was pouring into the room so that she could face him. Once she was standing at the back of the sofa she heard the male by the door to the stairway to the outside world take in a deep breath and say, “Raya? Shit… Raya is that really you?”


	5. Chapter 5

It took a great deal of will power but soon Alex had pried herself away from Jason and Nathaniel's comforting embraces so that she was standing in front of the love seat of her own accord. She then took a moment to smooth out the skirt of her dress and the sweater she wore over it in order to try to keep her hands busy.

Once she felt like her clothing was back in its proper place, Alex made her way around the love seat and the power that her potential Ulfric was pouring into the room so that she could face him. Once she was standing at the back of the sofa she heard the male by the door to the stairway to the outside world take in a deep breath and say, “Raya? Shit… Raya is that really you?”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Alex’s head shot up and she smiled brightly the instant that she had her assumption confirmed. “Richard!” She shouted before she shot out of her spot and ran to give him a hug.

The taller werewolf had to practically catch the smaller woman as she flung herself at him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He chuckled softly as his arms encircled her shoulders. As Alex settled her head into the middle of his chest, Richard unconsciously looked up and caught Anita’s eye. To say that she was surprised by the younger werewolf’s reaction would be an understatement and Richard had to force himself not to laugh at the look on her face. He was so amused by her reaction that he couldn’t help but move his eyes around the room to see how everyone else was responding to their interaction.

Not surprisingly, Jean-Claude and Asher kept their faces carefully blank which told Richard that the two werewolves had caught the vampires off guard but they didn’t want it to show. He opened the marks he shared with the Master of the City ever so slightly to see if he could sense what the vampire was feeling through their metaphysical connection, but Jean-Claude was maintaining his steadfastly strong shields which kept Richard from being able to take a peek at his hidden feelings. That reaction caused him to smile on the inside because he knew that he had distanced himself so much from everyone in the room so harshly that none of them would have thought that he could cause this positive response from anyone, let alone a relative stranger.

His eyes then slid to the right so that he could catch a glimpse at the look that was on Micah’s face. He looked mildly surprised for a split second before he schooled his face into a more neutral expression. Just the fact that he had been able to put that look on the Nimir-Raj’s face for even a split second caused the Ulfric to feel beyond elated. If anyone asked he would blame his feelings of contentment for allowing his eyes to slide down to look at Nathaniel because heaven knew he could care less what a submissive leopard thought about him or so he tried to tell himself. But again he was pleasantly surprised because Nathaniel actually looked concerned, but for whom? Did he worry that Alex had run to Richard’s arms? Or was it something else?

Richard received his response soon enough because he almost immediately noticed that Nathaniel wasn’t actually looking at him. Instead the wereleopard’s eyes were laser focused on his best friend’s face. Richard then let his own gaze follow that of the leopard sitting on the floor and for the first time he felt his stomach drop as a pang of guilt as the look on Jason’s face suddenly hit him.

Jason only had eyes for Alex and when she became wrapped in Richard’s arms he wasn’t able to hide the pain that filled his eyes. He knew that he and Alex had shared a moment in his room, a very hot, intimate moment passion before she had shut him down. At the time he truly did believe that it was because she didn’t want to start something that she couldn’t finish, but now anyone could see that he was wondering if it was because she was ready to give her heart to another. Although he had tried to distance himself from anything that was related to Jean-Claude for the longest time, Richard could never have ignored that Jason was one of his werewolves. He always remembered the early days after Raina, the former Lupa of their pack who was a sexual sadist that Anita thankfully took out of the picture, had cut Jason up during a rather adventurous round of sex that had turned nearly murderous. He had taken the new wolf under his wing and tried his best to help him acclimate to the changes that were happening to his body even though at the time Richard wasn’t the Ulfric and therefore didn’t really have to take on the role. No matter what happened Richard always seemed to have a soft spot in his heart for Jason (even though he had nearly paralyzed and maimed him a couple of times during his fits of rage), so he hated to see that Jason looked sad and lost while looking at him holding the new werewolf that had come to town.

In response to the look in Jason’s eye, Richard nearly unceremoniously pushed Alex out of his embrace, but she was the first one to actually break their hug. Alex smiled up at him and playfully slapped Richard’s chest much like a sister would berate her brother before saying, “What the hell are you doing here Richard? You didn’t tell me you knew the Ulfric of the local wolf pack here! If I hadda known you had an in here I totally would have exploited that!”

Richard smiled down at her and then let his power fill the room again as her left hand found his right to give it another playful slap. The swell of power that Richard released made it hard to breathe in the room and caused Alex to sway in her spot. Suddenly her knees gave out and if Richard hadn’t caught her in his arms, she would have fallen to her knees under the weight of it. As she swooned, Richard caught her under both of her elbows and Alex look up into his face whispering, “It’s you… Shit… Fuck… You’re the Ulfric… How…? How’d I…?”

“Some shifters are better at hiding what they are than others,” Richard calmly explained as he picked her up into a tight hug once again so that he could move Alex to the love seat. “Remember I told you that some of us can actually fool people into believing that they are just regular humans.”

Alex blushed and cast her eyes to her hands that were in her lap now that she was sitting down again. Richard eased his bulky frame onto the loveseat so that Alex was now tucked snuggly between him and Jason. She nodded a little too quickly then replied quietly, “Yeah you did tell me that some of US can do that if they are powerful enough, but I didn’t know that meant that you… God… You’re… you’re the Ulfric…” She then lifted her chin and turned her head to her right to look at Richard. The Ulfric felt his stomach drop again when he saw the tears that had welled up in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me you were the leader of the pack here? You knew that I was looking for somewhere that I could be safe enough to settle down, hell you were the one that suggested I move up here… How could you lie to me about who you are after I told you all about…? Oh God… What else did you lie to me about?”

Richard gently brushed away the first tears that trickled down her cheek and answered in a soft, caring tone, “Raya I didn’t mean to lie to you. As a general rule I don’t tell anyone what I am until I know that I can trust them to keep my secret because if they let it slip then that’s it, I lose my kids. It’s nothing personal and I swear it was the only thing I wasn’t up front about with you. Everything else we talked about was the truth. And don’t beat yourself up for not figuring out what I am; I’m the Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke clan, which means that I’m strong enough to play human when I need to.”

Alex nodded and whispered out an “Okay” that was swiftly covered up by someone letting out an indignant snort of a laugh. Everyone, including the two vampires that still had yet to allow their faces to betray them by revealing any of their feelings or thoughts, turned their heads towards the originator of the sound. Anita didn’t notice any of the looks the men gave her and just stared at Alex with a hard scowl on her face and her arms crossed tightly across her stomach while every eye in the room became laser focused on the expression she was wearing.

“Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black there Alex? Or is it Lexie or…?” Anita did nothing to hide the disdain in her voice as she berated the younger werewolf. She then waved a hand in Richard’s direction and nearly spat out in anger, “Or is it Raya now? Seriously, who the hell are you and why should we continue to give you food, shelter and clothing when all you’ve seemed to do is feed us bullshit?”

Alex shuddered in a breath and willed her tears away because she knew that there was no way that she could have this conversation with Anita if she was sobbing and teary eyed. She had broken down the night before and that felt like strangely appropriate timing because Anita had been playing the role of her potential Lupa, but right now she had to calm herself down to face an angry Executioner. She couldn’t be a pathetic girl right now, even though that’s sort of exactly how she was feeling. What Anita had just said was the absolute truth, Alex was in such a desperate state that she didn’t even have enough clean clothes get her through one day, let alone the rest of her life which made her feel utterly pathetic, but she tried her best to cover up those destructive thoughts.

Jason watched Alex with a careful eye as she started to break down and wanted nothing more than to comfort her. He then slid his arm around her waist and pressed himself into her side so that he could whisper in her ear, “It’s okay Alex… Everything is going to be alright…”

As much as she wanted to sink into his warm embrace, Alex knew that now was not the time. Now she had to be strong… well at least she had to show a brave face to everyone in the room, so she jumped up to her feet and moved with inhuman speed so that she was standing behind the love seat. Jason and Richard had to shift onto one hip so that they could turn and face where Alex now stood, but she didn’t pay attention to that because she was somewhat relived that she could actually see everyone in the room from where she was standing right now. Well she could see everyone except for a few bodyguards that she knew were stationed by the ancient looking steel door that led to the stairway to the Circus of the Damned, but she didn’t worry about them because she was sure that she wasn’t about to do anything that would cause them to shoot her in the back.

Alex’s eyes instinctively found Jason’s and she was relieved to see that he look on his faced told her that he knew that her getting up of the couch wasn’t her way of rejecting him. Well it was either that or he was trying to show her that he was hopeful that she wasn’t turning her back on him. She gave him a small smile that she meant only for him to see but then she heard someone clear their throat and she was reminded that her new favorite werewolf wasn’t the only one who had a keen eye on her every action right now.

She then nodded in Anita’s direction saying in a very apologetic tone, “You’re right Ah--… Lou---…” Alex frowned inwardly because she had no idea how to address the angry woman seated in front of her right now. Calling her ‘Anita’ felt too informal and yet she didn’t feel like she had earned the right to call her ‘Lupa’, so what was left?  She finally decided to use a polite and formal title to address the woman seated on the couch in from of her, “I mean you are correct Ms. Blake. I have changed my name but that’s because Lexie Hughes no longer exists… She was gone the moment I realized I couldn’t go back to my restaurant because I was a werewolf and that’s when Alex Hughes was born.” She then turned her eyes to look her potential Ulfric in the eyes and sheepishly admitted, “My friends in high school used to call me ‘Raya’ and that just felt right for starting a life in the country side. All of them are nicknames I’ve lived with all my life depending on the person that was talking to me, but ‘Lexie’ and ‘Alex’ have always been my preferences. And… and my mother was the only one that called me ‘Alexandria’, but that was only when I was in trouble. Everything else I told you, especially last night, it was all the truth, I swear to you that it was.”

During her apology Alex managed to maintain steadfast eye contact with Anita, but now that she was finished she found it hard to look the other woman in the eyes. Anita’s piercing gaze felt like it was boring into Alex’s soul and the young werewolf finally gave into her cowardice and she turned her face down so that she could stare at her feet. She forced herself to take in long, slow breaths to keep herself from hyperventilating or sobbing. Her hands opened and closed in tight fists against her thighs as she willed herself to calm down, but her racing heart just would not slow down no matter what breathing exercises she used at that moment. Against her better judgment she had allowed herself to wake up with such a renewed sense of hope for how everything was going to come to pass today and now, just like she should have predicted based on her experiences over the last year, everything was crashing down around her. Not just crashing, it was crashing and burning and every move she made and every word she spoke seemed to just add fuel to the fire until it became an inferno that seemed to have no way to extinguish it.

Alex was standing there silently contemplating how easy it would be for her just to strip out of the clothes they had given her and then just take off running out of this basement and the building above them. She was sure that baring her flesh to the room would be unexpected enough that at least some of the guards would be caught by enough surprise that she would be able to get past them. If she could get away from them then she could leave every hope and dream she allowed herself to believe would come true behind here with the beautiful clothing they had given her. The speed with which she made it around the couch had been unexpected and she could only hope that she could duplicate, or better yet surpass it, again to make it up the stairs while everyone stared dumbly at the pile of clothes that she left behind. Yeah, she had kept in good enough shape over the last year that she could break into a dead sprint without breaking a sweat, or an ankle, even if running through the streets completely naked probably wasn’t the wisest plan. Although this was St. Louis, land of the supernatural co-mingling with the natural world, so she was sure that people had seen weirder things than a brunette woman streaking near the waterfront, especially if they had no idea that she was a werewolf.

She meant to move her hands at the same lightning speed that she had moved off the couch, but she found that her hands couldn’t move all that fast because they were trembling too vigorously as she raised them to the bottom button of her sweater. The tips of her fingers actually slipped off the first button because they were shaking so hard, so she dropped them quickly and shook her hands back and forth to try to release some of the nervous tension she was feeling. After that she found that she could move with the preternatural speed she had used just moments ago again and she had more than half of the buttons on her cardigan undone when her hands were halted by one almost giant hand engulfing both of hers and squeezing them tightly to keep her from being able to move them at all.

Alex then slowly raised her eyes to the face that came with the hand and she gasped in a breath when she saw Richard’s chocolate brown, compassion filled eyes, the same ones that she had gotten used to seeing when they met up to hike through the woods in Tennessee. She saw the same almost teasing twinkle in his eye that he had used to ease her fears of being a lycanthrope all those months ago as he eased her hands away from her torso saying, “So I think we can agree that all of us hold back at least a little part of ourselves until we know we can trust someone…” Alex still wouldn’t look up into Richard’s face so he tugged gently against her hands to get her to follow him back to the couch. Once her feet started to move, he again started to speak. “And if we can all agree to that, then we can also agree not to hold it against each other… Or at least we can wait to pick at it until after we hear everything you have to say and make a decision about whether or not this restaurant could possibly work here.”

Richard carefully sat Alex down on the couch again, but this time he placed her so that she would be sitting closer to Jason than she had been previously. Jason seemed to understand what Richard was doing, but that didn’t stop him from giving the older werewolf a questioning look. Although it didn’t surprise the Ulfric that his wolf would be slightly confused by the compassion and care he was showing this unknown wolf, it still disheartened him to see the look on the blonde’s face. Some of those emotions must have shown on Richard’s face because Jason smiled then nodded and slipped his arm over the couch back so that he could fit Alex against his right side. Richard sighed inaudibly with relief as he sat back down on the love seat, albeit this time he had a bit more room to maneuver.

Richard looked over to the other group seated on the larger couch but all of them had schooled their faces so that he couldn’t immediately tell what they were thinking about either what had just transpired or the information that Alex had already shared. His expression softened even more, almost as if he was pleading for assistance causing Anita to finally break. She gave him a half smile and a shrug because she honestly didn’t know what to say to him right now about anything she had witnessed because she had no absolutely idea how she felt about any of it.

Richard seemed to understand what that meant and he couldn’t help but smile. With a soft shake of his head he turned once again towards Alex and nearly reached out to touch her as he asked, “So from what I understand you want to get back into the kitchen full-time and that you’ve come up with an interesting twist for the restaurant?” Alex still refused to look anyone in the eyes and pointedly stared at her hands as she shrugged non-committedly. Richard then reached over and squeezed her knee and then shook it saying, “Why don’t you tell me about it Raya?”

She wasn’t sure if it was the caring tone of voice the Ulfric used or if it was because he was still using the nickname she had first used to introduce herself, but Alex quickly found her chin lifting up and turning to look at Richard’s face. She shrugged once again and sounded so small when she finally replied, “It sounds so stupid now that I’ve seen how shifters and vampires can actually interact…”

“Alex…” Jason sighed as Richard gasped out an astonished at the tears he saw welling up in her eyes, “Raya…” But it was Nathaniel’s forceful, “Lexie, don’t do that! Don’t belittle the concept you came up with for an amazing restaurant!” that caused Alex to sit up straighter and make very direct eye contact with him. Nathaniel gave her an award winning smile then added in a slightly more sheepish tone, “I mean… Don’t discount that your unique niche won’t work until you all figure out how it may or may not play out…”

Richard couldn’t help but react to how Nathaniel’s words affected Alex’s demeanor and he quickly turned his confused gaze towards Anita who did not look as comforting as he had hoped she would be. She carefully maintained all of her stone like shields to keep him from sensing any of her feelings about what was happening so he turned his eyes to her face and tried to make direct eye contact with her. She actually met his eyes but just as he feared she maintained such a calm, blank expression that he had grown to hate that he learned nothing from it right now. Anita’s steely demeanor did break slightly under the weight of Richard’s gaze but all that he got from that minute change was that she knew something he didn’t, but she wasn’t willing to be the one to tell him the truth.

He then knew that everyone wanted him to hear it, whatever ‘it’ was, from Alex, so he picked up her right hand in his left as he said, “Raya…? Alex…? Honestly I don’t care what name you want me to call you, but I do care and want to know how your new insight to vampire and shifter interactions will affect how you wanted to market your restaurant. I want to support you, you know that I do, but I can’t unless you tell me everything. Please Raya…? Please tell me what you’ve told everyone else…”

“Richard…” Alex started through a whisper before she shrugged out of his hold so that she could gracefully fall to her knees in front of him on the floor. She remained on all fours with her face tilted to the carpet as she hesitantly raised her right hand vaguely in his direction. Before he moved Richard looked towards Anita for guidance and she quickly nodded towards the werewolf on the floor so he gently caught Alex’s hand to let her know that he accepted her apology, even though he had no idea why she was offering him such an open demand of forgiveness.

As soon as his warm hand accepted the one she offered, Alex shuddered in a breath and then nearly sobbed out, “Ulfric…” She brought herself up to her knees so that she could run her left cheek over his right thigh continuing, “Ulfric I honestly meant no offense when I proposed having members of your pack and your Lupa’s pard to be a part of the menu… I… I didn’t understand how…”

Before she could finish her explanation Richard snatched back his hand away from her. Alex recognized the rejection consciously, but she was so desperate that she let her unconscious mind take over as she let her face burrow into the sofa’s cushion with her left cheek firmly pressed against the side of his thigh. Richard then turned his rage-filled gaze to everyone else in the room as his hand started to stroke the back of Alex’s head because he didn’t understand what was happening. Whenever he and ‘Raya’ had talked while then were hiking through the forest he would have never have foreseen her being capable of hurting anyone deliberately, so he automatically mentally accused everyone in the room of corrupting her into having thoughts that rated such an apology.

“ _Mon ami, mon ami_ do not glare at us so, _ma gamine_ came up with the concept for the restaurant all on her own,” Jean-Claude said with the faintest hint of anger slipping into his tone.

Even before Jean-Claude spoke, Alex had sat back on her knees so that she could look up at the still seated werewolf. She kept her hands on his knees because she still wanted him to know that she was seeking forgiveness from him. “He’s right Ulfric. But when I added that little niche idea into my proposal I had no idea that vampires and lycanthropes could have the relationships that you all have here. None of the packs I spent time with didn’t really interact with the local kiss at all and I just… I didn’t know. I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

Alex continued to chant that she was sorry and pressed her forehead into Richard’s knees. His hand moved the back of her hair and he unconsciously started patting the back of her head as he tried to soothe her. “Raya… Hey… Hey… Maybe you should tell me about whatever it is that you’re sorry about because so far I haven’t heard anything that would upset me other than the fact that you want to add shifters to your menu. Maybe you could explain that to me because the image I have in my head isn’t all too flattering.”

“Oh shit…” Alex answered as she turned her face to look up at her potential Ulfric. “No… Shit…” She sat back again and choked out a laugh as she brushed her tears off of her cheeks. “I… I didn’t mean it like that… I didn’t mean like cannibalism…”

“Good to hear,” Richard replied with a soft smile tugging at his lips.

Behind her Alex heard a couple of laughs be turned into coughs. Alex actually smiled a little easier before she explained, “What I meant was that we would offer shifter blood on the menu as well, that way anyone in the community can dine at our establishment. But now that I know that most vampires have a _pomme de sang_ it sort of sounds rude to ask lycanthropes to volunteer as donors.”

“Blood… You are going to have blood donors on the menu,” Richard mused as he stood up and started to pace between the two couches.

Jason very carefully eased himself off the couch and onto the floor beside Alex with one eye trained on his Ulfric to make sure he didn’t anger the larger man. In fact every eye in the room remained trained on the pacing werewolf, so Alex jump and let out a small cry of surprise when Jason touched her shoulder. He motioned for her to follow him back to where they had been seated on the love seat but Alex just shook her head and flicked her eyes to the only person who wasn’t a bodyguard that was standing. She hoped that he understood that that was her way of telling him that she was afraid to move because she thought that that would anger their Ulfric even more than he already was at the moment.

Jason just smiled then tugged on her hand as he whispered, “I don’t think he’s angry… he isn’t spilling off any of his power, which is what usually happens when he gets pissed off… I honestly think he’s actually taking a moment to consider the new information you just told him.”

“Really?” Alex mouthed because her fear of rejection had rendered her unable to have enough breath to speak.

Jason tugged on her hand again answering quietly, “Really. Come on, at least you can be comfortable while we continue this discussion.”

Alex let Jason guide her back to the sofa and she let out a little gasp when Richard stopped then stepped closer to the seat he had abandoned. Alex shrank back into Jason’s arms as Richard loomed over both of them and asked, “But I don’t get how you would make it work. I mean I assume that since you used to own a five-star, high end restaurant that that’s what you would want to have here, but how would that work if you have a bunch of half-naked shifters that look like coffin bait walking around. I just don’t get it… After everything you told me Raya, how can you possibly want to run a perverted place like that here? How would that help you to get back some of the life you abandoned last year?”

When they first sat on the couch, Alex had let herself relax against Jason’s chest, but every muscle in her body stiffened at the questions Richard asked her in a soft, disbelieving tone. She didn’t really try to extract herself from Jason’s arms, even though she probably should have since one of his hands had accidentally slipped past the hem of her dress so that he could touch her bare skin while he comforted her. Richard remained standing between the two couches with his arms crossed over his chest with a look on his face that both frightened and saddened Alex so much that she forced herself to take a deep breath so that she could calm her racing mind and try to explain everything that he seemed to have misunderstood so badly.

Alex stared up into Richard’s accusing face with a devastated, apprehensive look on her own. Of everyone in the room Richard had been the one that she had confided in the most and she couldn’t believe that he would say something so hurtful to her. She pressed Jason’s arms even more tightly around her midsection and started running her hand up and down his forearm to comfort herself while she tried to think of a way to explain herself properly because she wasn’t sure that she could handle any other accusations that he might throw at her if she could get him to understand what she meant to say.

“You’re right,” she started slowly causing Richard to startle slightly in his place. “My dream is to work in the kitchen of another five star restaurant and I most definitely didn’t envision anyone walking around half naked at all.”

She eased her way out of Jason’s embrace as she spoke because she felt it was inappropriate for her to be practically on someone’s lap while she corrected the Ulfric. Everyone had been so focused on the verbal tennis match between the two werewolves that no one seemed to notice that Micah had gotten up and moved to sit on the arm of the chair where Asher was currently seated. Well everyone seemed oblivious to it except for Nathaniel, who quickly moved to curl himself around Asher’s legs, and Jean-Claude, who smiled softly at seeing Asher’s hand move to stroke Nathaniel’s soft hair without taking his eyes off Richard who continued to pace before he stopped and tried to stare down Alex.

“ _Mon ami_ …” Jean-Claude started in a placating tone until Richard turned his near rage filled eyes to the seated vampire.  Jean-Claude then held his hands up in a sign of surrender and then motioned to the now empty seat beside Anita saying, “ _Mon…_ Apologies… Richard you bring up an interesting question that _ma petite_ has been eager to have answered as well. If you would please take a seat I am more than certain that _ma gamine_ would be more than happy to ease your fears and answer all of our questions that we still have about her proposal.”

Anita held out her hand to Richard and after a moment’s hesitation he took it and sat down beside her. Jean-Claude kept his satisfied smile to himself because he knew it would just cause Richard’s blood to boil, so he turned his attention back to Alex and smiled warmly as he said, “ _Ma gamine… S'il te plait, continuer ton explication._ ”

Richard raised a questioning eyebrow and it was Anita that quietly answered, “Apparently Alex speaks French fluently, so he likes to show off. But don’t worry she’s really good at translating so the rest of us understand, not like everyone else he insists on speaking French with.”

Anita knew that everyone in the room would hear what she said, but Jean-Claude’s warm laughter did catch her somewhat by surprise. Before he could speak, Alex nodded then replied very authoritatively, “I’d be happy to finish my explanation of my vision for our potential business venture.” Alex was now seated a little bit away from Jason with her ankles crossed politely and her hands folded in her lap. She had quickly gone from looking like a werewolf needing comfort to from a member of her pack to a confident young woman in the middle of a business meeting. “As I was saying I do want our restaurant to rival any other five star establishments not only in the city but also in the country as well. After spending so much time in France, my menus have always been heavily inspired by French and Mediterranean cuisine. I was actually hoping that given Jean-Claude’s and Asher’s connections to France that they could take over with an interior designer to give the dining area a very Parisian feel to it.”

Everyone nodded but remained silent so she quickly continued, “Although I would very much like to offer lycanthrope blood on the menu, I think that a few of you have gotten the wrong idea about what that means. First of all, the servers will be fully dress, preferably in a simple but elegant looking uniform of black pants and a white button down shirt, but that’s of course open for negotiation. Should someone order their blood straight from the source as opposed to just a simple glass like it’s a fine wine, we would have them feed solely from the wrist. That way the server or donor as it is can just roll their sleeve back, feed our guest and then they can roll back their sleeve and get back to work. Although I do believe that food can be very sensuous and in the right setting can lead to many different pleasures, I don’t want the focus at the restaurant to be on anything but my food, so I don’t want to do anything that would turn the focus onto the blood donors instead of the plates coming out of the kitchen. It may sound selfish and conceited, but that’s the truth.”

“So all of the donors wouldn’t be waiters then?” Anita asked with a thought-filled look on her face.

Alex shrugged as she replied, “Honestly those are details that we’ll have to go over as we finalize everything. My preference would be for them to be members of the wait staff or at least for them to wear the same uniform so that they don’t stick out in the dining room. But I also don’t believe it would be prudent for us to have them serving food and playing the role of food simultaneously. I think that would be too much to ask of anyone and I know I can’t really carry more than one dish after I’ve had blood taken from my arm.”

“That does sound most prudent, _ma gamine_. Now _ma petite_ , Richard do you have any other questions that Alex might clarify for you?” Jean-Claude asked turning his attention to the two people with whom he was sharing the couch.

Richard opened his mouth to speak but stopped when Anita gently squeezed his right thigh. “No, after reading over the proposal again I think that was the only thing that still had me sort of confused. Richard we have a copy for you as well and I think once you’ve read it over too that you’ll understand what she’s wanting to do here as well.”

Richard nodded then turned his attention back to Alex. She still looked slightly startled and somewhat afraid of him, so he gave her an encouraging smile before saying, “Sure that would be good… Although I still have a couple of other questions for Raya that have nothing to do with the restaurant, if that’s okay.”

“Of course Ulfric, you can ask me anything,” Alex quietly replied, wringing her hands in her lap.

“First, which do you prefer for me to call you ‘Raya’ or ‘Alex’?”

Alex blushed and smiled coyly nearly whispering, “Either one is fine. It honestly makes no difference to me.”

“Alright… I’ll try to call you ‘Alex’ just like everyone else, but it might be a little hard for me to remember after calling you ‘Raya’ for so long.” Alex smiled a little bit brighter and whispered “that’s fine” before he continued. “And second I have to ask, what does ‘ _ma gamine_ ’ mean?”

Alex’s head whipped up so that she could look Richard in the eye as she cheerfully answered, “It’s French for ‘pup’, so he’s calling me his pup.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Richard asked indignantly before he could stop himself.

A dark blush spread across Alex’s cheeks and chest as she visibly retreated back into her seat because she hadn’t expected Jean-Claude’s wolf to call to react so negatively to her eagerness to have a playful nickname from their Master, but she somehow sounded completely confident and didn’t show her embarrassment in her voice when she answered, “Actually I am. When the Master of the City started calling me that, I kind of hoped that that meant that he was planning on letting me stay. From what I’ve seen since being here, he seems to give people in his inner circle a clever nickname and who wouldn’t want to be considered special and singled out in some way by our Master?”

“Yeah when you put it that way I guess it makes sense… although I seriously don’t get it… but still I think I can see where you’re coming from… Okay… Moving on… Now you petitioned Jean-Claude and Anita to move to St. Louis, are you not wanting to join the Thronnos Rokke Clan once you got here?”

Alex swallowed hard as her blush somehow grew a few shades darker. She then tucked her hair behind her ears and stared at her lap while answering in a small, unsure voice, “I do want to join your pack Ulfric. My plan can’t work without cooperation from all of the different groups and I seriously had no intention of trying to alienate myself from your pack, but now I see I’ve probably…”

She trailed off at the end of her statement, so Richard gave her a moment because it sounded like she hadn’t finished her thought. When she remained mute continued to just stare at her hands that were now picking at the hem of her cardigan, he figured that she wasn’t going to expand on her last thought without being prompted in some way. “And after getting to know you I would have figured the same thing and yet here we sit. But then again I’m only here because Jean-Claude invited me, so I guess I’m sort of confused about how me and my pack truly do fit in with your plans for the future.”

“I don’t want to be Lupa…” She finally whispered after an uncomfortable minute of silence.

It took everyone a moment to let Alex’s words sink in and even after that they all remained in a shocked silence. Jason slid over the empty space on the couch between himself and Alex so that he could wrap his arm around her. Although he hadn’t heard this exact explanation, he had already heard enough stories from her about why she was led to believe that she was a weak link within the pack that he knew that’s where her last statement was leading. He was still trying to convince her that she had been lied to about her strength, but for some reason she was still reluctant to trust him that what he was telling her was the truth.

Richard watched Alex accept Jason’s offer for comfort and tried not to sound as confused as he was feeling when he asked, “Lupa? What does being Lupa of the pack have anything to do with you joining our pack?”

Alex started to shiver, so Jason pressed her even closer into his side. “I’m… I’m not strong enough to be Lupa, so I… I can’t… can’t audition for that role in order to become a member of your pack… That’s why I reached out to the Master of the City. My hope was that once I was a member of his inner group that he could persuade you that I wasn’t Lupa material while convincing you I could be a contributing member of the pack.”

Alex then turned into Jason’s embrace so that she could avoid looking at anyone in the room by pressing her face into his side because her reasoning sounded so absurd when she said it out loud. She figured that Richard would be annoyed or angry about what she had just said, so the sound of him laughing caught her completely off guard and she couldn’t help but turn to see the look on his face right now.

“I can’t believe that rumor is still making the rounds,” he said to no one in particular. After another hearty chuckle he sobered up slightly then asked, “Wait! If you thought that’s what you had to do to join my pack then you had to have been told that you’d have to have sex with Jean-Claude, Anita and everyone else in order to join his kiss. You mean to tell me that you were fine with having sex with him and whoever else he told you had to be ‘with’ in the bed, but you weren’t going to chance having to audition to be my Lupa to permanently move here?”

After another uncertain shrug Alex replied just over a whisper, “I thought that I could offer to let him or any of his vampires to feed from me whenever they wanted. I sort of figured that could take the place of me having to have sex with anyone or at least I hoped I wouldn’t have to by offering blood in order for me to pass the initiation in join the group of vampires and shifters here. But now I know that won’t work because he has a _pomme de sang_ , so I guess I’m kind of hoping that being business partners would make me invaluable enough to let me stay here without any of the other… sexual stuff. But if that didn’t work… Yeah… Yes, I would chance giving my body to him or anyone else he would want me to allow to use it because I could still just be a chef and no one would expect me to be a leader anywhere other than in my kitchen.”

Richard’s power suddenly swelled in the room unexpectedly which made it hard for everyone to catch their breath before he sneered with a growl, “So you’d let him fuck you, but not me? You wouldn’t let your Ulfric touch you, but you’d let an animated corpse violate you?”

“Richard!” Anita snapped in surprise. Her outburst had little to no effect on the wolf king’s demeanor or the hot, angry power he spilled into the room.

The fiery rage in the Ulfric’s eyes caused Alex to extract herself from Jason’s embrace. She hoped that the look in his eyes would fade with the distance she put between herself and the other werewolf on the love seat. Her head was shaking rapidly from side to side as she replied, “No… no… I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just… I just want to create beautiful food again… I just want to make people happy…”

Tears were streaming down both of her cheeks by the end of her response and only Micah, Nathaniel and Jason seemed to understand where they were coming from. Although she tried to maintain her distance, Jason slid over the cushions towards her left side once again. When he placed his hand on her thigh, she tried to smack it away, but she lost her coordination when a gut wrenching sob over took her and caused her whole body to convulse erratically.

“Alex please don’t start that again,” Jason gently chastised her. “You’re not new to being a shifter and your control is better than you give yourself credit for. Nothing bad will happen if…”

“Yes it will Jason!” Alex shouted as she threw his hand off her leg. “Don’t try to down play the harm that we can cause Jason. You know what I’m thinking about is true… Boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy, one of them becomes a lycanthrope, they have sex, the lycanthrope shifts and the human dies because we shift during sex and claw them to death! It happens all the time! Don’t try to tell me it doesn’t.”

“To new shifters it does Alex, but you aren’t all that new. I mean, you aren’t that inexperienced,” Jason countered in a very careful voice. “You thought the same could happen when you shifted into your wolf form just to heal your leg and yet you didn’t try to devour me after you shifted, now did you?”

“No,” she whispered towards her lap.

She continued to cry silently due to her embarrassment with her chin tucked into her chest after her brief response. Jason watched her shoulders shake for half a minute before he turned his sad eyes towards Micah to silently plead with him to try to help him get through to the crying werewolf. Micah instantly understood the request the younger man was making with his eyes and gave him a soft nod to let him know that he thought that he was ready to take on the task passed onto him.

“You know that he’s right Alex. Remember how you didn’t even pass out after you shifted out of your werewolf form once you had something to eat?” The Nimir-Raj asked with the slightest bit of heat to his tone in reaction to the tension everyone was feeling in the room.

“She didn’t?” Anita asked staring Micah down without sounding like that revelation had angered her.

Micah shook his head but didn’t move his eyes away from Alex as he answered her, “No she didn’t.”

Since everyone was talking about her in near reverent tones, Alex allowed herself to raise her eyes to look at Micah. Tears continued to drip off her chin as she hoarsely asked, “Can’t everyone do that?”

Her innocent sounding question elicited more than a soft rumbling of masculine laughter the echoed in the room. When she heard some of the chuckles coming from behind her Alex shifted just her eyes to see that even some of the bodyguards had found her last question more than a slightly humorous. She then sighed and slumped in her spot because she knew that yet again she had put her faith into the wrong people and false wisdom which had inevitably led her down the wrong road.

“Shit,” she whispered to herself as Richard chimed in, “Remember how I told you some of us are powerful enough to pass for humans? Those are the same ones that don’t get completely knocked out when they shift into either form. Raya… Ahem Alex, they’re right… you are strong. I could feel the power spilling from your aura the first time I met you.”

“I didn’t mean to,” she pleaded almost desperately still not able to make eye contact with anyone in the room.

There were a few more chuckles that accompanied Alex’s quasi-apology but one stood out from the rest.  Jean-Claude let out one of his patented touchable laughs that made both Alex and Anita shiver. “ _Ma gamine_ the powers that come with our transformations are not for us to choose. Whether we be master or slave is simply left to the cruelty of fate. One can only hope that those who inherit great powers will use it to better our world instead of harming it as so many have seemed to choose to do in the past.” Alex’s eyes somehow found the Master of the City’s and she almost instantly felt calmer. “Now no more apologies for being who we truly are, _n’est pas ma gamine?_ ”

“ _D’accord_ ,” she quietly agreed before her eyes drifted over to the man seated on the other side of Anita. “But I truly am so sorry I didn’t reach out to you Ulfric. If… if I had of know who you actually were you know that I never would have believed any of that crap everyone was saying about you. I want to… I need to join your pack because I know I can’t do this alone anymore. I didn’t just come here because I thought this would be the perfect place to open my… this restaurant, I came here because I need your protection too. I can’t go back… I can’t let him…”

Sobs over took Alex once again and she tried her best to stifle them by covering her face with her hands. Jason immediately moved to comfort her because every bone in his body instinctively felt like they had to, but he froze in his spot when someone on the other side of the coffee table motioned for him to do so. Although every instinct in his mind and body told him that Alex needed him right now, Jason forced himself to sit back and watch while someone offered her the comfort and support she needed right now.

Alex went completely still under the hand that rested on her shoulder and she slowly raised her face and admitted in an anguished tone, “I can’t do it anymore on my own. If I keep running he’s going to find me because I just don’t have it in me to hide anymore.”

“You don’t have go anywhere,” Richard answered in a surprisingly gentle tone. He placed his right hand on her left cheek and then drew Anita closer to his side with his left. “You’re safe here with our pack. We’ll protect you, I promise you that.”

Anita placed her hand on Alex’s right shoulder and added, “Your Ulfric and Lupa are here to support you and…” Alex moved her eyes from Richard’s face to Anita’s and looked like she was anticipating the worst. “And your pack’s Bolverk will help protect you as well. Anyone that touches you in any way you don’t consent to will have to answer to us.”

Anita moved her hand so that her left hand was cupping Alex’s cheek while Richard’s right hand did the same on the other side of the werewolf’s face. She continued to stare up at them as if she was a small child whose parents had just told her that they could and would protect her from the monster under her bed. The look that Anita saw in Alex’s eye normally would have made her feel uncomfortable and squeamish, but today it didn’t seem to faze her at all. Alex had come to them battered and beaten, both literally and figuratively, and she truly did feel like she could be the younger woman’s protector.

“So I can stay?” Alex asked with such an innocent tone that there was nary a person, be they vampire or shape shifter, that didn’t want to hug her to make her feel safe and at home.

Alex kept her eyes trained solely on her new Lupa, so she jumped slightly in her seat when a cold hand touched her now bare right cheek. That shock caused her eyes to shift to her left so that she could see the owner of the hand as he replied, “ _Bien sûr ma gamine_ … But of course you can stay.” Alex shuddered out a breath and fell to her knees in front of the dominants barely breathing out a flurry of ‘thank yous’. Jean-Claude then claimed both of the kneeling werewolf’s cheeks in both of his hands as he said, “You are most welcome. Now, it’s getting late and there is much that we have to do.” He looked over at Richard adding, “And tonight is a school night so some of us must return to our ‘normal’ lives.”

Richard tensed briefly at the snide way Jean-Claude said the word ‘normal’, but he reigned in his anger as he turned his attention to the conflicted look on Alex’s face. “He’s right Ray--- Alex, I have to go because I still have some assignments I have to finish grading before class tomorrow, but I don’t want you to take my leaving as a bad thing. It’s just what I have to do. But we’ll have to talk another time about you coming to meet the rest of the pack. The full moon is coming up in a few days and I think that would be a perfect time for you to come to our Lupanar so that you can meet the rest of your pack and that should hopefully give you enough time to get settled in here a little bit more.”

“Okay,” she whispered as she forced herself to rise up to her feet. “If you think that they will accept me, then I will make myself available and ready to greet them all whenever you want me to.”

“Trust me, they will.” Richard then scooped Alex into a boisterous bear hug where he actually lifted her feet off the ground as he whispered into her ear, “It really is so good to see you again Raya. Verne and I were worried that the worst had happened to you and he’ll be so relieved to know you made it up here.”

Once she was back on her feet Alex just gaped at her Ulfric with wide, disbelieving eyes causing him to laugh deep from his chest.  She then turned her eyes to her feet and nearly whispered, “Don’t worry I’ll call him later to let him know that I’m here. I’ll also apologize to him for worrying him… and I’m sorry for that too Richard. I didn’t mean to do that… I just… I never thought that anyone would care.”

Richard let out a heavy sigh as he pat her shoulder and whispered, “I know you didn’t.” He then straightened up and addressed the whole room, “In case it wasn’t made clear, Ray--- Alex is a member of the Thronnos Rokke Clan now, she is to be protected and respected as everyone here would regard any other member of our pack.” Alex gave him a tentative smile of thanks that Richard mirrored. He then added almost reluctantly, “But I do have to go, school tomorrow and all.”

Alex nodded then replied, “Of course… Thank you Ulfric. Now go get some rest Richard… We wouldn’t want to ruin your beauty sleep because the girls need to have at least one teacher to swoon over during the day.”

Richard continued to the door to the stairs with a chuckle on his lips as he continued out of the room. Back when he was just a mild mannered high school teacher leading the younger woman through the woods on a hike, she had teased him about being more of a hindrance than a help to the younger generation because she was sure that all of the girls were getting more lost in his eyes than in his lessons. At first Richard thought that that was her way of flirting with him, but after a while her tone start to remind him more of the one his own sister had used on more than one occasion. After that realization he found that he started to treat her more like a little sister than anything else and he had secretly hoped that he could bring her back to St. Louis so that he could make sure that she was protected and yet somehow here she was. Now he hoped to just ensure that she found his pack as a place for her to thrive in comfort.

As Anita watched Richard walk away, her eyes drifted down to the watch on her wrist. Since she was supposed to be out of town still, she hadn’t planned on having any work to do, but Larry Kirkland, fellow animator at Animators Inc., had called earlier in the day to ask her for some help. His wife, Detective Tammy Reynolds, was out of town helping to create training materials for other police agencies for investigating crimes involving preternatural beings, so he was left to care for their baby for the night. She had hoped to be home so that he could make his appointments that night, but her flight got postponed and his back up babysitters were unavailable which lead to him calling Anita and begging her to help him by taking on a couple of his appointments. Anita being Anita insisted on taking on all three appointments so that he wouldn’t have to worry about getting his daughter home too late and after a little arm twisting he finally agreed to stay home. Well after Anita nearly had to threaten him and him vowing that he owed her more than one favor Larry conceded and remained home.

“And if I leave now I might actually make it to my first appointment of the night on time,” Anita announced as she put on her jacket. At the door she paused then looked back at Alex to say, “I’ll leave you with Jean-Claude to finalize the business end of things, but in the next couple of days I’d still like to sit down and have a chat one on one with you.”

Alex swallowed and nodded then answered, “Of course… whenever you want to I’d be happy to Lupa.”

After Anita left the room, one by one everyone made their exit. Jean-Claude, Asher and Nathaniel had to get to their respective jobs. Although everyone was eager to move forward with the plans for the restaurant, Jean-Claude thought it would be best to give it a night in order to start fresh. He also needed some time to get an interior designer and realtor that were of his standards to help them to find a space and make it their own, so he thought it best to leave the planning alone at least for one night. After the two vampires departed, Nathaniel gave Alex a hug and then followed them so that he could get to Guilty Pleasures for his performance on the stage. Micah followed closely behind him because it was his night to be on call for the emergency line that had been set up by The Coalition of Better Understanding Between Human and Lycanthrope Communities. With the full moon just being days away the possibility of a shifter falling prey to their beast in the wrong place at the wrong time was high, so he was the man that someone could call tonight to help to get them out of a sticky situation.

Once Micah and Nathaniel were gone, suddenly Alex found herself alone in the living room with Jason. Well there were a couple of guards by the door, but they had tried to make themselves as invisible as possible against the wall so it was as alone as the two of them could expect to be in a room that was used by everyone. Jason watched her for a minute because he wasn’t sure how he should approach her while she stood shifting her weight from one foot to the other and just stared at the carpet under her feet.

Finally he decided to remain where he was standing and quietly asked, “How are you feeling Alex?”

She shrugged and raised her head to look at him. “Fine I guess. I didn’t really expect to have to rake through so many emotions again, but I’m okay. And… I know that I haven’t been awake all that long, but I’m feeling really tired all of the sudden.”

“Yeah Richard tends to have that kind of effect on people. I know I always feel exhausted after he’s been around.” Alex gave his comment an unfriendly look, so he held his hands up in silent surrender then said, “Okay… okay I’m sorry, that was rude but you have been crying pretty hard, so I’m sure that has something to do with it.”

Alex smiled softly then answered, “Yeah that’s probably it.”

Jason took her by the hand and then led her back towards his room. Alex followed him obediently even though her heart started to race and her stomach started to churn with uncertainty. Jean-Claude, Anita and Richard had all said that she could stay in St. Louis, but what did that mean for her future living arrangements? Was she going to live here under the Circus of the Damned or would they expect her to find a place of her own? And if she did stay underground here, which in all honesty was her preference, would she get her own room? Or would she be…?

Her thoughts started to run frantically through her mind and suddenly she found it hard to breathe. She hadn’t realized that her breathes were coming in small, rapid gasps until she felt Jason’s fingers brush against her cheek. He tried not to show too much concern in his eyes as he gave her an encouraging smile to try to help to ease some of her apprehension.

“There’s a ton of other guest rooms where you can sleep, but I just thought that you might want to pack up the clothes that were left out for you to choose from,” he offered without letting any of his disappointment show in his voice.

Alex wasn’t sure how to take what Jason had just said because she thought that he would try to persuade her into staying with him, so she just smiled and nodded. She still hadn’t come to terms with how she felt about him, so she was worried that her voice would betray her and reveal feelings she hadn’t allowed herself to acknowledge yet. When her eyes flicked down to her feet, Jason’s lips spread into a self-satisfied smirk because he now had an answer to a question that he had yet to ask. As such he decided not to ask Alex that question outright and instead decided to tease it out of her.

Before he opened the door, Jason leaned in so that his lips brushed against her ear as he whispered, “But now that we know you’re planning to stay in St. Louis, I guess that means you’re free to stay with me…”

He briefly rubbed his cheek against hers and brushed a quick kiss against it before he stepped back to let her see the smirk on his face. Alex stood cemented in her place, too stunned to react for a moment. Jason continued to smile and looked like he was ready to burst out laughing at any second as he walked into his room but he didn’t say a word. Instead he just opened his door and walked into his room. He made sure to leave the door wide open so that he made it clear that it was Alex’s choice whether or not she passed through it. Truth be told he would be crushed if she didn’t follow him, but he couldn’t bring himself to pressure her in any way to do it.

Alex then found herself alone in the hallway just staring at Jason’s open bedroom door wondering what she should do. He made her feel safe and his lips were so soft when they kissed, but was she ready to take this step? Was she ready to let him take her to emotional and physical places that she had been trying to hide from all those months she spent on the road? She had felt a connection to him, but how deep did it really go? And was she ready to explore where those feelings may or may not lead right now?

 


	6. Chapter 6

She woke up to the sound of a moan. She had been in such a deep sleep that it took Alex a couple of seconds before she realized that it was her that was making the sounds of contentment, so she knew that what she heard that had awoken her. She knew that something had to have happened to cause her to let out such a loud, passion-filled moan and she nearly moved to sit up when she felt it; something, or rather someone was under the blanket laying down between her legs. Alex managed to shift up onto her elbows just enough to raise her head and torso so that she could see the bulge of someone’s head right near her mid-section.

She opened her mouth to ask who it was and what they were doing but all that came out was a surprised, “Ahh” when she felt a tongue leisurely run up the length of body from her shapely rear end to her belly button. Alex gasped in a quick breath when she felt him kiss a spot just below her belly button and her legs instinctively convulsed to squeeze his head when it felt his invading tongue move further down her body towards the moistened opening to her sex.

After a playful nip on her navel the tongue worked its way down to her most intimate center and now the owner of the tongue was no longer just licking her. He started to kiss her nether lips in nearly the exact same way that he had kissed her mouth the other day. His mouth was just as insistent against her now as they had been when she had broken up their make out session in this very bed, but Alex still wasn’t consciously aware that it was Jason who was nearly devouring her from the bottom up in this moment. The only thing she could focus on was trying to force herself to continue to breathe because her body was so excited she didn’t seem to be able to function, even at the most basic level because she had absolutely no control over her heart rate or her breathing. She was so lost in the sensation of Jason’s tongue caressing her flesh that she most likely would have stopped breathing and forgotten to keep her heart beating if her brain hadn’t have been given the task to keep both going without any conscious effort on her part at all so that her body would receive at least the minimal amount of oxygen needed to survive.

As he continued his careful ministrations against her flesh, Alex became completely passive against the mattress and even allowed her legs to fall open even wider to give Jason better access to her body. He took advantage of her rag doll like demeanor almost immediately and attacked her flesh with even more fervor. It didn’t take long after that for Alex to feel her orgasm building and she almost yelled out for him to stop because it felt like it was going to be too intense but it hit her with such a force that all she could do in the end was try to find something to hold onto when it hit her.

“Oh… oh… Oh God… OH GOD!” She screamed as her hands scrambled to grab on a headboard that wasn’t there. When she hit the stone of the wall, Alex whimpered and slammed her hands down against the mattress. Jason still hadn’t slowed down or backed off at all so a second orgasm hit her just at the tail end of her first and it was all she could do to find the breath to scream as her fingers fisted the sheet tightly.

“Ohhhh… Oh God… N-n-no… no more… too much… so good,” Alex managed to whimper out when she thought that the mouth pleasuring her wasn’t going to stop.

Jason wanted to continue, but he could hear Alex’s distress so he allowed himself one last lingering lick before he kiss her lips to signal the end, at least of this round of pleasure. Jason had no plans of this being the only time that he would cause her to lose herself to passion with his oral ministrations, plus he had at least one other vital body part that he had yet to use to satisfy her on a very carnal level. He then flipped the sheet back off of him like a magician revealing the end of his trick and smiled up at Alex’s blissed out face from where he was laying on his stomach with her juices nearly dripping off his chin. Alex could barely keep her eyes open as her hands convulsed around the sheets one more time while he watched her come to terms with the intense feelings of gratification that he had just brought to her body.

“Wow I got a promotion from Angel to God, but seriously Alex you can just call me Jason,” he replied with a cheeky smirk on his face.

The only response that Alex could muster at this point was a huff of a laugh and a lazy kick to Jason’s side. He chuckled to himself because he knew that she truly would have caused him some kind of bodily harm if she had of had the strength to do it, but his efforts to overwhelm her with pleasure had been so successful that she couldn’t right now. He then quickly rubbed his face on the sheet that was now pooled down his back to dry off some of her release before he crawled up her body and kissed his way up to her face.

As he trailed a line of kisses up her body Jason lingered at her breasts. He took one hardened nipple into his mouth and suckled on it until he heard Alex whimper so loudly that it almost sounded like she was in pain. When he released her flesh with a loud, wet pop Alex couldn’t help but to sigh in relief because she thought that he was going to continue with his previous path of kisses up to her face. Jason of course had a different destination in mind. Alex let out a tortured groan with the slightest edge of enjoyment when she felt Jason hot tongue start to lap at her other breast as if it was a bowl of water and he was a dog that had been left in the heat all day long. Alex was nearly out of breath but she did manage to let out a faint squeal when Jason finally took that nipple in between his lips.

Alex had never met a man that seemed to take as much enjoyment out of bringing her off to new heights of pleasure without having his own release like Jason seemed to in this moment. She was once again reduced to making unintelligible noises in response to everything that Jason was doing with his mouth against her flesh. She had allowed herself to get so lost in those sensations that she didn’t feel the smile that tugged as his lips before he released her second nipple from his lips with a gentle caress of the tip of his tongue before he nipped the inside of her breast and then continued to place soft kisses against her chest and neck as he finally made his way to her lips.

Before reclaiming her lips as his own, Jason took a moment to take in the blissed-out look on Alex’s face. She had given herself over so completely to the feelings he managed to coax out with his efforts that she almost looked like she had passed out. It had been a while since he had been able to bring a woman so much pleasure that she lost consciousness, so Jason wanted to take a moment to revel in that feat. He especially didn’t want her to witness the cocky smirk that was undoubtedly on his face right now because his past experiences had taught him that most women didn’t appreciate it when their mate appeared to be overly self-confident in their sexual prowess, no matter how true that thought might be.

Alex’s eyes started to flutter open and Jason had enough time to school his face into a more tender smile by the time she had her eyes opened as wide as they could right now. At first her gaze seemed to still be quite unfocused so Jason held his breath in anticipation of what Alex’s reaction would be once her hazy mind became clearer. Once the grinning werewolf leaning over her came into focus, Alex smiled as well. For that brief moment she let herself feel nothing but the pure contentment that came with waking in his arms and allowing him to cause her body to feel such unadulterated excitement, but then reality forced its way back into her mind.

Jason leaned down to kiss her before he had a chance to see her eyebrows shift into an unimpressed frown form on her face when her old insecurities started to creep into her mind. He was the suddenly stopped by her placing a hand on his shoulder. Although he didn’t try to finish his course to his final destination, Jason also didn’t retreat from leaning into Alex so she wasn’t able to fully focus on his face because it was just too close to her own. Jason didn’t seem to mind that when he opened his eyes that he was close enough to kiss her again because he too couldn’t get her facial expression into full focus either, so he missed the angry glint in her eyes that was now accompanying an even deeper frown.

“Good morning,” he finally whispered before pressing his body forward to place a soft kiss against Alex’s lips.   
When she didn’t try to stop him again, Jason let his second kiss linger into a much longer, deeper embrace. Although she had appeared to be reluctant before, Alex’s lips immediately started to reciprocate as if they weren’t connected to a brain that was having angry thoughts about the man that was kissing her. She let her hand slide from where it was on his upper chest up and over his shoulder to press his body more fully against her chest. Jason willingly followed Alex’s lead and shifted his body so that he was laying down more fully on top of her and moaned into their kiss of which Alex was still allowing him to control the pace and depth.

Jason had given himself over so completely to the feel of Alex’s mouth that he didn’t notice her moving her arms and legs so that she could flip him over onto his back. His eyes flew open as she settled her weight on top of his and moved to sit up on his waist. His moment of shock didn’t last long and another gentle smirk tugged at his lips as he said, “If you wanted to be on top all you had to do was ask Alex. Although that move that you did there was pretty exciting.” 

He finished his statement with a gentle thrust of his hips so that Alex could feel just how ‘excited’ his body was feeling underneath of hers. Alex threw her head back with a gasp before she nearly fell forward at feeling his bare erection brush against her nearly dripping core. She managed to catch herself by planting her hands on either side of his head on the mattress and let her head fall forward so that all he could see was the crown of her skull while she tried to catch her breath. Jason took that as an invitation to continue so he thrust his hips up again with more insistently a couple of times.

Alex whimpered out an indiscernible noise before she raised her face with her eyes still closed and whispered, “No… stop… Please Jason stop…”

His hips stuttered in mid-motion only when Alex’s eyes opened again and she fixed him with a steely glare. She then shifted her body so that she was seated more on his stomach so that he could no longer try to tempt her into allowing him joining their bodies in a way she hadn’t allowed any man to since she had become a werewolf. Although the look on her face had him confused, Jason did nothing to try to get her to return to her previous position on his body. 

He started to run his hands up and down her bare thighs as he quietly asked, “What’s wrong Alex? Didn’t I make you feel good?”  
At first Alex just shook her head with her eyes squeezed closed tightly. She couldn’t look at him right now because if she continued to stare at his sky-blue eyes that were promising her a whole new world of gratifying carnal knowledge and sensuality, she wasn’t going to be able to hold onto her chastity much longer. 

“We… I… I can’t Jason. I’m sorry, but even after everything you guys have said, I just don’t know that I’m ready to test my control just yet,” Alex admitted quietly.

“Hey… hey, it’s alright Alex we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I swear I wasn’t trying to pressure you into anything   
and I’m sorry if I made you feel like I was trying to,” Jason replied with his hands still moving gently up and down the bare flesh of Alex’s thighs. “But to be completely honest, I’m pretty sure we’ve already tested your limits and your body is primed and ready to give it another go.”

Jason waggled his eyebrows enticingly then shifted his eyes to stare at the spot where she was sitting on him. Alex suddenly became acutely aware that she still wasn’t wearing any underwear under her opened sleep shirt which meant that Jason would be able to feel the heat of her core beating down onto his bare stomach. She shifted her hips so that their flesh was no longer pressed together and then quickly did up half of the buttons of the shirt before she tucked the front end of it under herself so they had a firmer barrier between themselves.

A frown started to form on Alex’s face as she took a hold of both of Jason’s wrists and slowly pulled them away from her thighs. Jason opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing, but the look on her face kept him silent. Alex then firmly placed his hands on the mattress on either side of his hips. It didn’t take long for him to take the hint and he pressed his hands against the material where she had placed his hands.

“Alex…” he started with his confusion evident in his tone.

He once again fell silent as Alex forcefully pressed his fingers into the mattress. His eyes drifted to their hands but Alex’s gaze remained fixed on his face as she asked “Do you feel that? Do you Jason?” He pushed his index fingers into the holes that were under his fingers and then he moved his eyes to Alex’s face as she said, “That’s right, I did that. My… I… there were claws when I…”

Suddenly she shifted her weight to the left so that she found herself seated upright with her back against the stone wall and her legs flat against the mattress with her ankles crossed modestly in front of her. Jason remained on his back and just stared dumbly as he watched Alex button up the rest of the front of his shirt that she was wearing. Her focus remained on her hands and moving her sleep shirt so that she was as covered up as she possibly could be, so Jason pushed himself up into a seated position on the bed as well. For the briefest of moments he let his eyes glance over his body and was reminded how naked he was right now, so he quickly pulled the blanket at his feet up over his legs and midsection.

Once he felt like he was properly covered, because Alex’s demeanor right now seemed to demand it, Jason turned to face her again. By this time Alex was settled in her place and had a look on her face that nearly broke Jason’s heart. She was chewing on her bottom lip and had let her hair fall forward to try to hide the fact that she was fighting back tears. It took him more than a moment to realize that she was no longer looking at him, but instead she had her eyes steadfastly fixed on her hands that were playing with the button in the middle of the shirt.

“Alex…” Jason started as he placed a gentle hand on her arm.

At his touch Alex moved her eyes to look at him without moving her head. The questions her golden gaze held caused Jason to fall completely silent. He could hazard a guess as to what every question was that her eyes were asking him and yet he wasn’t sure that he was able to answers any of them sufficiently. He wanted to make her feel safe and secure and yet he wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to do that for her, especially right now with that look on her face.

“Seriously Alex we don’t have to go any farther than we already have,” Jason stated before he ran his tongue over his teeth and lips to discretely remind himself of her taste and how happy she had seemed to be in that moment. “Really I…”

“I want to,” Alex admitted over the rest of his statement. “But I… I’m just not… I mean I…”

Jason moved his hand from Alex’s arm to her cheek and turned her head so that she would be facing him. An easy smile spread across his face after hearing her reply. Alex still refused to make eye contact with him so Jason leaned in and place a gentle kiss on her lips.

“If you want to then we can Alex. We can take it slow and I swear to you that it will be amazing. Unless… unless you don’t trust me.”

Alex’s eyes flew open and she looked Jason in the eye as she replied almost frantically, “I trust you Jason! It’s… it’s me… I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Jason smiled and then moved his hand back and forth against her cheek before he left it against her face so that he was lovingly cupping her cheek. Alex watched him apprehensively as he leaned in and pecked her lips gently again. He kept his face so close to hers that neither of them could focus on the other’s face. She swallowed nervously and couldn’t hide the shiver of anticipation that accompanied Jason’s close proximity.

“So trust me now Alex,” he whispered against her lips before kissing her quickly a couple of times.

Alex chased his lips as he leaned back so that he could regain very direct eye contact with her. Jason let out a very quiet laugh at the look on Alex’s face causing her to open her eyes. Her cheeks pinked under an embarrassed blush when she realized what she had done and Jason was quick to ease her mind by petting her now warm cheek tenderly. 

“We can take it slow. I promise I won’t hurt you…”

“But I might hurt you,” Alex admitted in a voice that was barely over a whisper.

Jason placed his other hand on her other cheek so that he was holding her face securely. She tried to avoid looking him in the eye, but Jason shook her head gently every time she averted her gaze until she was left no choice but to maintain full eye contact with him.

“You said that you trust me, right?” He asked with a playful smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

Alex tried to nod in response, but Jason’s hold on her face completely impeded that movement. She then closed her eyes, swallowed hard and croaked out, “Yes, yes I do.”

“Good, so trust me now when I say that you can do this. I know you won’t do anything to hurt me… at least not any more than either of us wants you to do in the heat of the moment.” 

He accentuated the end of his statement with a playful wiggle of his eyebrows that Alex couldn’t resist and she soon let out a soft chuckle. He could see that she was more relaxed with their situation and he moved in to kiss her again when Alex suddenly asked, “How can you be so sure? I mean you haven’t known me that long… how can you trust me that much already?”

Jason huffed out a laugh that caused his lips to brush against Alex’s without actually trying to kiss her and then he leaned back so that he wasn’t in kissing distance of her right now as he replied, “You haven’t known me very long either and yet you seem to trust me quite a bit. So tell me Miss Hughes, how is it that you can say you trust me but you don’t believe that I can trust you in the least?”

“You saved my life,” she answered without even a breath of hesitation. “How can I not trust someone that rescued me and… you helped heal me… And… well as for me…” She lifted her right hand to make a loose fist. After opening and closing it a few times she turned her eyes away from it to Jason’s face and said, “My hands started to shift when you pushed me over the edge. What if that happens again when my hands are like on your back or something? I don’t ever want to cut you up Jason and I especially don’t want to do it while you’re causing me to feel more pleasure than any man has ever given me before in my life.”

Alex looked so distressed during her explanation that Jason almost felt guilty about the smug smirk that he felt spreading across his face at her last statement… almost. He ignored any of her self-deprecating comments and tried to keep from sounding too giddy as he asked, “More pleasure than any man has ever given you before?”

Alex blushed brightly and sputtered out a few words while trying to correct herself saying, “Not ever… I mean, it was amazing and… oh geez it’s not like I haven’t… or that I want to compare…”

“Hey as much as I enjoy the flattery, you and me… it’s pretty much a done deal so long as you want to continue,” he stated much more somberly. Although he enjoyed teasing her, Jason could tell that it was getting him further and further away from accomplishing his ultimate goal with Alex. “I know you’re worried about what you did to the mattress, but that’s one of the major perks of being a werewolf: we can take a lot of damage. And if that’s the only thing that’s keeping you from saying yes to me right now, don’t be worried, if you feel yourself starting to shift, just tell me and we can stop… or better yet we can just change our positions so that that won’t be an issue…” 

Jason trailed off there because he noticed that Alex was once again avoiding making eye contact with him. He scooped up both of her hands into his own and lifted them to his lips. After trailing a half a dozen kisses against her fingers, he held her hands tightly to his chest adding, “But if it’s something else… if there’s another reason…”

He watched her throat move as she swallowed hard before she shook her head replying, “There’s nothing else… I want you…” She then opened her eyes to say, “Okay…”

“Pardon?” He asked, not that he was trying to be a jerk or anything by making her repeat herself, but his heart was beating so hard in anticipation that he found it hard to hear Alex when she was talking so softly.

“Okay,” she repeated with a little bit more conviction in her tone. After watching Jason’s Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed nervously, Alex decided that she should be more bold. As such she moved her face towards his so that her mouth was beside his ear as she huskily whispered, “Make love to me Jason. Please, I want to feel you inside of me and I want to make you feel as good as you made me feel just moments ago. Please Jason? Please?”

Jason nodded then simply replied, “Okay.”

A soft laugh bubbled up and out of Alex at his response sounding so much like her previous answer to him, but Jason quickly swallowed that sound with a passionate kiss. He met absolutely no resistance as he pushed her back and guided her down onto the mattress once again. He was barely aware that he was completely naked, but he couldn’t help but notice that Alex had covered herself as much as was possible in his shirt that she had been using as pajamas since she had started sleeping in his bed. Jason kept her mouth and mind distracted with his lips as he undid the buttons on the sleep shirt because he still worried that she would change her mind and talk herself out of what they were going to do if he did anything to startled her in any way.

Jason didn’t stop the movement of his lips and tongue as his right hand stealthily moved to the buttons of her shirt. His fingers were surprisingly nimble and gentle as he quickly eased each of the pearly white, plastic buttons out of their holes. He didn’t relinquish his claim on Alex’s mouth and continued to devour it even after he had the shirt completely undone and let it fall away from her body. Much to his surprise, Alex pushed herself up off the mattress with one hand as her other hand wrapped around Jason’s head to force him to keep his mouth connected to hers. He couldn’t help but to laugh softly into her mouth when he felt her moving her shoulders back and forth slightly as she tried to shimmy out of the garment.

At feeling that motion, Jason did detach his mouth from hers in order to help Alex ease the cloth of the shirt down her arms and off her body. Alex took the shirt in both of her hands and balled it up against her chest for a moment while she and Jason just stared at each other while they caught their breath. For a moment Jason thought that that was Alex’s way of slowing down their progression, but then Alex smiled coyly as she tightened her hold on the balled up shirt and made a show of throwing it as far away from the bed as she could.

“I’m not going to change my mind,” she explained quietly as the certainty in her eyes started to fade. “Not unless…”

Once again Jason surged forward and kissed her into silence and didn’t bother to voice his thoughts that he would never say no to her either. Instead he shimmed his body down her own while their lips moved against each other’s into a deeper and deeper kiss. With his body now in the spot he wanted it to be, Jason captured Alex’s tongue in his mouth so that he could suck on it while he lifted her left leg over his hip so that he could ease his now painfully hard member into her waiting embrace.

The sensation of Jason or if she was honest with herself, the feeling of any man penetrating her body for the first time since her monumental life change over a year ago caused Alex to gasp and throw her head back against her pillow. Jason froze in his spot because the sound that emanated from her throat caused him to believe that he had hurt the woman he… that he had hurt Alex prompting him to gaze down at her face with her eyes squeezed tightly shut while panting in a few quick breaths through clenched teeth, much like one would when trying not to show how much pain they are in as he quietly asked, “Alex…?”

Her eyes immediately flew open and her right leg found its way around his waist before she breathlessly replied, “Don’t… It just… it’s been so long… You feel so… so good Jason… Please don’t stop here, I was just savoring the moment because I… Ahh…” She momentarily lost the ability to breathe at feeling him press even more of himself into her. Even as he continued to ease more of his length into her moistened channel, Alex still tried to explain herself because she wanted him to know how wonderful he was making her feel and hoped that her positive affirmations would encourage him to continue completing their coupling in every way possible. “I… I never, ever want to… oh God… Want to forget how you… you… Shit… Oooh… How you made me feel right now… oooh… fuck…”

Jason just smiled as he buried his face into Alex’s neck because he didn’t want to discourage her praise in any way as he pulled his hips back until he was almost ready to disconnect from her body before thrusting his hips forward. He continued his back and forth movement and didn’t bother to notice that Alex’s hips weren’t moving because he was mesmerized by the sounds that she was moaning out of the depths of her chest and the high pitched squeals she tried to hide whenever he hit her sweet spots just right. 

She seemed to notice on her own that her only means of participation had been some rather loud, albeit erotic noises of appreciation while Jason appeared to be doing all of the physical work. Almost reluctantly, Alex let her legs fall away from Jason’s mid-section so that she could manage to move her hips into a complimentary motion. Her efforts were immediately met with a much more powerful forward thrust on Jason’s part and suddenly something became crystal clear to Alex. She was a werewolf, so her body could take more damage and since she had been more than alright with partners that enjoyed their sexual escapades to be bit on the ‘rough’ side then that could mean that she might be able to enjoy the same, if not more intense levels of game playing from now on.

That thought caused Alex to let out another low, deep moan which just spurred Jason on to continue his more than vigorous pace with an almost inaudible “Harder” that she breathed out against his ear. Since he had already taken the edge off of Alex’s libido with a long overdue orgasm with his oral prowess, Jason knew that he had some time to work her up to her next one. He then continued to work himself back and forth in an almost methodical manner without increasing his speed at all until he felt her breath hitch and her body start to contract into an almost uncomfortable ball around his own.

“Oh shit… oh shit…” Alex chanted as her legs wound their way around Jason’s waist once again because she wanted to let him continue with his aggressive pace without inadvertently impeding by trying to keep up with him. 

“Alex,” Jason replied breathily as his right hand moved to press her leg even harder against his waist so that he could thrust even harder and deeper into her with the new angle he twisted her into.  
After gasping in another breath, Alex started to murmur, “Don’t stop… don’t stop… Please don’t stop…” Until her brain was so overwhelmed with pleasure that it could no longer form words which reduced her speech into her just being able to scream out her delight as loud as she could.

Jason’s hips kept moving back and forth wildly while she continued to wail and scream loudly in pleasure. Alex still hadn’t run out of breath by the time that Jason thrust himself almost painfully deep one last time as his body started to convulse above her. Although she was so loud that she thought that her voice would be hoarse the next day, Jason just let out a soft grunt against the skin of her throat while he finally met his completion.

They both panted out a few breaths while they tried to regulate their breathing. Jason was happy to let his sweaty chest fall against Alex’s torso while her legs and arms wrapped themselves tightly around his body as she continued to hyperventilate. At that point Jason just let the other werewolf cling to him because he couldn’t mentally bring himself to pull any part of her anatomy away from his body, especially when she was the one that initiated such passionate closeness of their flesh.

“Shit… shit…” Alex repeated more than once with a soft chuckle. 

Jason remained completely mollified against her body, but Alex couldn’t quite leave well enough alone. She wanted to make sure that she told Jason how happy he had just made her, so she forced herself to open her eyes while she raked her fingers through his hair at the back of his head so that she could sound more in control when she spoke.

Instead of just finding a wonderfully, loving blond male on top of her, Alex’s eyes became laser focused on the two men braced solidly in their spots in a V-shape formation behind a near giant of a woman that was standing in the doorway of Jason’s bedroom with their guns at the ready to kill anything or anyone that might be viewed as a safety risk to anyone that lived at the Circus of the Damned. 

Jason still seemed to be oblivious to anyone that might be in or around the room other than the woman underneath him, so Alex once again let her legs fall away onto the bed’s mattress while her left hand gently slapped the back of his shoulder as she stuttered out, “Jay… Jay… Jay-son… There’s… uhh… there’s guns…” Alex swallowed deeply and then seemed to find her voice so that she could announce against his face that was pressed against her bare chest, “You have people with really big guns at your door Jason… Are… are we in trouble?”

Jason truly just wanted to continue to nuzzle his face against Alex’s bare chest and would have gladly cursed anyone that dared to ruin this moment, but he forced himself to raise his head up when he heard the fear that had crept into her tone. He didn’t allow his eyes to look up into her face because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to force his eyes away from it in order to follow the path of her gaze to the door. He instead tilted his chin into his chest and pressed his cheek against her breast with a soft smile spreading across his face at the sensation of the skin of her soft, supple breast brushing against his own as he looked over his shoulder at the people to which Alex had referred.

Claudia had already lowered her gun to her side and was using her free hand to push the other two bodyguards that Jason didn’t get a chance to see deeper into the hallway. “Sorry Jason,” the tall, muscular wererat stated very authoritatively. “We heard screaming and since we all know that Anita is in Jean-Claude’s room we…”

The bodyguard’s cheeks looked awfully pink as her commentary petered off, so Jason chuckled and finished for her, “So you worried someone was being hurt and you barged in here to do your job.” Although Alex remained silent in her spot underneath of him, he did feel her cross her arms tightly over her chest while she tried to make herself as small as possible. He then sat up and twisted his torso at the waist so that he could shield her as much as possible with his body while he said, “But as you can see there’s no one in this room that wasn’t having a good time, so if you wouldn’t mind… you know…”

He jutted his chin towards the hallway beyond the door to further illustrate his point. Claudia quickly caught onto his meaning and let out her own embarrassed laugh before bowing her head slightly as she replied, “Of course. And again sorry Jason, Alex I… we honestly didn’t mean to interrupt anything at all. You two… Umm… Have fun.”

With those incredibly awkward words of encouragement, Claudia backed out of the room and closed the door behind her retreating form. As soon as he heard the hard thunk and then the light click of the door closing and the handle locking into place, Jason let out a loud sigh of relief as his whole upper body went nearly boneless while he flopped down against Alex’s chest once again.

Alex remained frozen in her spot while Jason let out a loud chuckle before he pressed his hands into the mattress to raise himself far up enough to look down into Alex’s face. He was completely prepared to crack a few jokes to try to brush off the intrusion of the ever present bodyguards employed by the Master of the City, but one look at Alex’s face told him that that would be the worst course of action that he could take right now. She still had her arms wrapped protectively over her breasts and every possible inch of skin on her face was pinched up into a mixture between a frown and a look that showed that she was trying to keep from crying.

Jason bit his bottom lip to remind himself not to say anything stupid, funny or insensitive in this moment as he started to gently stroke the length of her face with the tips of his fingers. He kept his touch feather-light as his hand continued moving up and down the length of her face from chin to forehead until he felt some moisture impeding the track he had established against her skin. He didn’t stop petting the side of her face as he watched her tears pool in her eyes before they spilled over into a small river down each of her cheeks. 

He wasn’t sure what part of anything that had happened since she had woken up that might have upset her so much, so Jason decided that he would have to tread lightly with Alex right now… Very, very lightly especially since he was still sincerely hoping that he was going to be able to have a repeat performance with Alex in the near future, so he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. Well he was actually hoping to get more than one chance to experience the sexual highs the two werewolves had met together over the last couple of hours, but first he had to get her to calm down… He had to get her to talk to him and tell him why she was having such a strong and, worse yet, negative reaction to what just happened so that he could ensure that they could at least have a chance at a repeat performance.

His hand paused against her cheek so that he could cup the side of her face and that allowed her tears to pool into the palm of his hand as he worriedly said, “Alex…? Alex…? Hey, hey, hey… Please don’t cry. What we just did… what we just shared… it was…”

“Amazing,” she replied as her eyes reluctantly opened to look up into his face. “It was absolutely amazing, but… but as wonderful as it felt…”

A loud, gut wrenching sob escaped out of Alex’s mouth as her body tried to curl into a protective ball causing Jason to try to wrap his arms around her shoulders as she quietly cried out, “It felt perfect and then… and then I ruined it. I’m so sorry.”  
By this time Jason managed to maneuver Alex into his lap as he as he sat up so that he could hold her as closely as possible to his body as he replied, “Alex you have nothing to apologize for.” She let out a snotty snort of derision which froze Jason in his spot momentarily. She didn’t move for almost a full minute so Jason then added, “You think that because the guards showed up that something happened between us that wasn’t right?”

His question forced Alex to take a second to pause and reflect everything that had happened. She wasn’t sure what emotion dominated her mind right now because she was feeling equal parts embarrassed and disappointed because of the bodyguards’ intrusion. 

It wasn’t lost on Jason that Alex refrained from elaborating as she tried to extract her face his hold, so he raised his other hand to maintain his gentle grip on her cheeks as he added, “I mean it Alex. They thought they heard someone in trouble so they jumped into action… That’s a good thing isn’t it?”

Alex’s cheeks burned hot under his palms as they flushed with embarrassment and she quietly stated through a whisper, “But the walls are made of stone…”

“Pardon?” Jason replied automatically because he was so taken aback that she had finally spoken that he hadn’t been able to register the words Alex had finally said aloud.

“The walls… they’re made of stone, so doesn’t that like make them sound proof?” Alex asked in a small, uncertain tone.

“Usually it would,’’ he replied as he ran his thumbs over her cheeks “but all of our guards are lycanthropes so their hearing is better than good. Plus with everything we’ve all been through they’ve had to step up their skills on so many fronts that hearing into our rooms if there is even the slightest hint of something going wrong has become second nature to them.”

Jason felt more than saw the frown that formed on Alex’s face as she stared at him wide eyed. After his words sunk in completely, she found that she couldn’t maintain eye contact with him. As she casted her eyes to one side, she whispered more sounding like she was reasoning something out with herself than she was speaking with him, “So that means that even if I wasn’t screaming like a banshee that… oh God they would still hear it…Oh God that’s… that’s so…” She whimpered out a mournful sound before finishing, “How… how embarrassing…”

Even though he knew that she wasn’t speaking to him, Jason still answered, “It doesn’t have to be.” Alex managed to give him a very unfriendly glare even though his hands covered the majority of her face. Jason let his hands fall away from Alex’s face, but he wouldn’t let her wriggle out of his lap and just hugged her torso into his chest. He then nuzzled his nose into her sweaty hair just behind her ear and continued. “They’re bodyguards. They’re trained to see and hear things without reacting unless it’s something that could hurt the person they are paid to protect. No one is going to judge you for being vocal during sex at all, so you really have nothing to apologize for or to be embarrassed about. I promise you that if our guards are used to anything it’s a woman that doesn’t mind losing herself to the moment during any form of sexual escapades, alright?”

“You don’t…?” A fine tremble started through Alex’s body, but she took in a deep breath and tried to soldier through so that she could finish her thought. “You don’t…? I mean, you aren’t talking about our Lupa are you?”

“Well actually yeah I am. She more than anyone has taught the guards here at the Circus that they can’t let how enthusiastic anyone is during sex interfere with how they protect them and perform their actual ‘job’ if they want to remain employed here.” He squeezed his arms even more tightly around her shoulders and waist before he answered her unspoken question. “And no, none of them will think any less of you as a person just because you can scream loud enough to shatter glass when your favorite werewolf is working you through orgasm after orgasm.”

Alex laughed against Jason’s bare chest despite herself because she wanted to feel embarrassed for some reason. She knew that she should feel something about professional bodyguards barging into a room just because she got a little too vocal while expressing her appreciation of Jason’s tongue, fingers and other parts of his tender flesh caressing some of the most intimate parts of her body, but right now she didn’t have the strength to care. Right now all that she could focus on was the warm afterglow feeling that she had been depriving herself from feeling for fear that she would seriously harm someone inadvertently since being turned into something that was more than human, but thankfully less than the monster that forced that change upon her.

She thumped him softly against his right peck then retorted in an unconvincing annoyed tone, “Who say’s you’re my ‘favorite’ werewolf? You know Richard and I DID spend quite a bit of time together when I was in Tennessee…”

“Oh how she wounds me,” Jason cried out in mock horror as he held a hand to his chest.

Alex let out a quick chuckle and then she suddenly looked very serious. Jason opened his mouth to ask her why she had such a solemn look on her face but was silenced by Alex latching her lips on his and sucking his tongue into her mouth. She dominated their kiss until she felt every muscle in his body start to go slack with contentment. She leaned back and smiled to herself that she was able to cause him to look so serene and relaxed, so she leaned in a pecked the tip of his nose.  
Jason’s eyes fluttered open to look into Alex’s nearly glowing face as she said, “Thank you for today Jason. Everything that you, Micah and Nathaniel told me now makes so much more sense. I truly do appreciate you illustrating to me that what I believed about myself really isn’t the truth.”

“So does that mean that you believe us now when we say that you aren’t one of the weakest members of our pack?”

“Oh I don’t know,” she started coyly before she peppered his face with a few more kisses. Her lips moved all over his flesh until her mouth was resting against the shell of his ear as she breathed against it, “I think you might be able to exploit a few of my weaknesses quite easily.”

Jason’s whole body shivered as Alex lightly ran her fingers up and down his spine. She then started to nibble his neck and collarbone while her fingernails traced gentle lines over his back and ribs. Jason let Alex move in his lap as much as she wanted or needed to cause goose bumps to blossom all over his body because he was so relieved that she was taking the initiative that he almost forgot himself and let himself get lost in the feel of her body against his.

When her lips returned to his, Jason let Alex practically feed at his mouth until they were both forced to break the embrace so that they could catch their breath. Alex huffed out a beautiful, breathy laugh and Jason couldn’t help but to stare at her because he never thought that he was going to be privileged enough to see such an easy smile this soon into his efforts to change her mind about her life as a werewolf and her life here in St. Louis.

Still smiling brightly and breathlessly Alex leaned forward to press her lips against Jason’s once again, but he stopped her by placing a firm and gentle hand against her shoulder. Alex’s entire body froze and practically every muscle in her body went completely rigid in her place in front of Jason. 

He immediately recognized that she was taking his action as a rejection, which truly it wasn’t, so he smiled and chuckled softly as he said, “Being a shapeshifter might mean that we can heal faster than humans, but all men still need to recover before we can go another round in bed and I unfortunately am just a man after all.”

“Oh… I… I didn’t… I mean, I wasn’t… well I mean I wanted to, but… I… I…”

As Alex stumbled through her apology her cheeks started to turn a familiar shade of dark pink so Jason placed his hand against her cheek to silence her so that he could inject with his own explanation, “Believe me if I could I would totally be up for another round with you, but sadly I can’t just yet.” He flick his eyes down to his waist and Alex’s gaze automatically followed his which cause her checks to turn from pink to a dark red that nearly caused her to feel light-headed. “Plus Jean-Claude has woken up so that means that I have to get to work.”

“Oh… Oh-kay,” Alex stammered as she scooted back and away from his body on the bed. “You have to go and I totally… I understand so, you should… Yeah umm you should go.”

Jason shook his head with a smile on his face at her reaction as he stood up off his bed. She looked like she as starting to huddle into herself again which meant that he might have just lost all of the ground he had just gained with Alex, so he walked around to her side of the bed so that he could capture her face in his hands. She looked up at him with a fearful look in her eye that he wanted to erase more than anything else in that moment. He let placed a very gentle, yet lingering kiss on her lips that Alex sighed and then relaxed into at first contact.

“While I’m fulfilling my commitments as our Master of the City’s pomme de sang, why don’t you hope into the shower and freshen up? Everything you need should be in there,” he explained without letting go of her face. “Plus I’m sure that once he’s up and ready to face the night that Jean-Claude will want to talk with you and get started on some more planning for your restaurant.”

“Right,” Alex agreed almost sounding embarrassed. “You’re right, he will. I shouldn’t have…”

“Don’t,” Jason interrupted before she could get another word out. “Don’t do that to yourself. You should jump my bones any time that such a feeling moves you. Believe me I would gratefully let you take advantage of my body any chance that you get, okay? But right now I have to pretend that my whole life doesn’t revolve around amazing sex with a beautiful woman, so please don’t take this as a rejection, okay?”

“Okay,” Alex agreed with a nod. 

Jason smiled then gave her one last kiss before he picked up his robe and turned to head towards his door. When he placed his hand on the door knob, Jason froze in his spot at Alex gripping his forearm a little too tightly. He braced for the worst just before she kissed his lips once again.

“If by chance I’m still in the shower when you’re done with the Master, don’t hesitate to join me okay?”

Jason was so stunned by her boldness that he stayed standing in his spot silently until she was almost hidden away in his bathroom. He then turned and caught the cheeky smile on her face as he murmured, “I’ll be sure to do remember that.”


	7. Chapter 7

Jason hadn’t returned to join Alex in the shower by the time that she rinsed out the last of the expensive smelling conditioner out of her hair. She still wasn’t sure how expensive it might actually be, but the glass bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body washes that she found in the basket in Jason’s bathroom left for her to use smelled like exotic flowers that she knew she could never have afforded in their physical form let alone any bath product that used their oils that extensively. Well if she allowed herself to splurge on anything but new kitchen utensils or gadgets Alex probably could have indulged and used similar products, but she had grown so used to cheaper drug store brands or no name brands for everything outside of the kitchen during her earlier years as a restaurateur when she didn’t have much of a disposable income that it never would have occurred to her to use her hard earned wealth on anything other than something new for the kitchen. Those thoughts and memories temporarily preoccupied her mind so that she almost forgot to remember that she had secretly been hoping that she would be startled by hearing Jason pushing the shower curtain back while she had her eyes closed with her face under the warm stream of water beating down from the showerhead. She almost forgot, but unfortunately the tasks of the impending day soon crept into her mind and clouded some of the contentment she felt after Jason had caused her more sexual bliss than she could recall since the first day that she had allowed any male to bring her any sort of sexual apex.

She slowly stepped out of the shower and allowed her eyes to wander and stare at the door for a moment before she finally convinced herself to give up the hope that Jason would come through it at any second. Alex then quickly forced herself to shift her focus to the immediate task at hand of getting ready for the day, well night, that she was told she was going to spend with Jean-Claude looking at real estate for his latest business adventure. Her mind easily started to wander to thought about what the restaurant would look like and what recipes would work best for the concept she had sold the Master and his inner-circle on for the menu while she dried her arms and legs before she wrapped herself in an overly large, dark purple, plush towel.

Sometime during the day while they were sleeping, or possibly the night before when Alex finally got to meet the elusive Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke Clan (who just happened to be her first confidant that convinced her being a werewolf wasn’t the death sentence she had resigned herself to and was nearly ready to embrace), a second basket of toiletries appeared on the counter of Jason’s bathroom. She found that she didn’t really know how she felt about the presumption that she would be staying with Jason for an indeterminate amount of time, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by the idea so she forced herself to also push those feelings aside. She had enough things on her plate to deal with right now that she didn’t have time to worry about abstract unknowns until she was forced to face them, as unpleasant as that prospect sounded right now. Or at the very least she wanted to try to be able put that discussion off until she had some more concrete plans hammered out for her future. So far it sounded like the ball was rolling to put her plans into place that would help to create a stable and hopefully permanent home in Saint Louis for herself, and so long as nothing changed that then she would feel more prepared to solidify any other plans that she had laid out for her future.

And she truly did want that future to include her favorite blond-haired, blue-eyed werewolf, but there were still too many unknowns to say that his presence in her future was an absolute certainty. Jason made her feel safe and strangely at home right from the get go and today also proved that the sex was beyond good between them. No scratch that, the sex was mind-blowingly amazing, but was that enough? They had a weird, almost unnatural instant chemistry both romantically and platonically, but that was only one side of themselves that they presented to the world. She knew that she was a different person when she was in the kitchen. She was more confident, more in control and much more intense overall and she knew that since becoming a werewolf she hadn’t allowed herself get remotely close to allowing herself to feel any extreme emotions, especially the ‘control-freak’ tendencies she had felt as the head of any kitchen where she worked. At first it was because she was worried that giving into those emotions would cause her to shift prematurely which would then lead to her harming or possibly killing some innocent stranger that inadvertently crossed her path. As time passed, she started to realize that she constantly felt out of place and detached because she had no permanent home and therefore never felt comfortable enough in any one place to let her raw emotions show. She had nowhere that she could call home which was why she had started visiting wolf packs of which she earnestly thought that she could become a participating member.

If she was being completely honest with herself she would have to admit that she was eternally grateful that this meant that she ended up with Verne’s pack in Tennessee because that meant that she got to meet Marianne, that pack’s Vargamor or spiritual advisor of sorts. Well not just meeting her, but having a chance to be counselled by her. After talking with Richard, who she thought was just a close friend of the pack that had helped them keep some of their land from being bought off by developers; he convinced her that she might want to talk to someone that could help her with the inner turmoil that she was feeling about becoming a lycanthrope and she finally allowed herself to be open to the concept of someone helping her cope with the changes in her life.

She had resisted going to anyone remotely close to being a counsellor because she was worried that they would try to delve into her past and the primary reason that she had devoted her life to her kitchen and her recipes to feel like a real human before she had ever had the chance to have werewolf blood coursing through her veins, but then Roxanne, Verne’s very dominant Lupa, blatantly told Verne that it was the worst idea on the planet for him to consider allowing any new wolves to join their pack before having their Vargamor check them out. Too many shapeshifters could learn to hide their power from other shifters through shielding and other psychic training, but Marianne could break through those defenses or at least recognize that they existed without much effort at all on her part. So Alex, well ‘Raya’ at that time, was left with a choice: spend a couple of counselling sessions with Marianne or leave and never try to petition Verne and Roxanne or anyone else in the Oak Tree Clan ever again in the future, well not so long as the Ulfric or his Lupa were still alive to become a member of their pack.

So eventually she found her way to Marianne’s house. At first she went under the guise of helping the older woman with house work and gardening, but it didn’t take the Vargamor long to recognize that Raya didn’t have much of a green thumb and seemed to feel completely ill at ease unless she was helping prepare meals in the kitchen. Marianne then easily translated that observation into penetrating some of Raya’s defenses so that they could have some proper, in depth conversations. It was through those conversations that Alex admitted to herself that having to abandon her dream of being a chef after she became a werewolf had hurt the most. Marianne not only agreed with that assessment, she took it one further and told Alex that that pain had actually caused a hole to form in her aura which in turn was causing the pain Alex was feeling in her heart and soul. At first Alex was resistant to believe in the Vargamor’s diagnosis, but Marianne was persistent and was finally able to force Alex to see the truth.

“Which brings me back here,” Alex whispered to her reflection as she finished the last touches of the make-up she was applying. “And now it’s time to face the music and the next phase in this plan. Everything else can wait until you have your own kitchen back… incredibly hot, undeniably sexy werewolves included.”

 

She took a moment to check her reflection and smiled brightly at the image before her. All of the bruising on her face had healed which meant that she finally was starting to look like the woman she remembered seeing in the mirror years ago. The dress that she had chosen to wear was form fitting and flattering without being to overtly sexy and would easily be converted into looking more business-like with the addition of a blazer.

Feeling satisfied that she not only looked but felt the part of a successful restaurateur; Alex took in a deep breath and slowly turned the knob to exit the bathroom. As she started to close the door, she suddenly stopped short and ceased all movement at seeing that she was no longer alone in the room. She opened her mouth to ask the lump on the bed who they were and why they were in Jason’s room when they rolled over allowing her to see their face.

“Jason?” She asked in a surprised, breathy voice.

His eyes slowly fluttered open as a sleepy smile spread across his face. His eyes remained somewhat unfocused as he replied with his own question of, “Alex?”

“Yeah Jason it’s me… are…? Are you alright?”

He smiled somewhat dreamily but didn’t look like he could form words to reply, so Alex moved closer to the bed so that she could check on him. His arm seemed to give out on him and he flopped down against the mattress of the bed causing Alex to panic and cry out, “Jason! Oh shit… are you…? Are you okay?”

Jason smiled sleepily at her without trying to move again, so Alex rushed over to his side to find out what was wrong with him. He somehow managed to roll onto his back so that he could try to follow her movements, but only with his eyes because he had no energy left to move his head. Jason’s lack of movement and overall lethargic behavior only served to fuel the panic that was building with Alex as she placed her hands on his face to start to survey his body for any damage.

She gasped in a sharp breath when she saw some blood on Jason’s neck along with the wound from which it originated, but before she could voice her concern she heard a voice near the bedroom door say, “It’s not as bad as it looks Alex.”

Her hand continued to caress the blood flowing from the bite mark on Jason’s neck until Nathaniel gently guided Alex’s hand away from Jason’s flesh as he softly explained, “That’s just where Jason let Jean-Claude feed… It… crap it should have…” He then turned his eyes to Alex’s face as he added, “It isn’t as bad as it looks Alex, I swear, but it should have stopped bleeding by now.”

Alex ran back to the bathroom to retrieve a couple of the towels she had left behind there so that Jason could use them for his shower that morning but instead she decided to use them to stem some of the blood flow out of Jason’s neck. Nathaniel took the first towel from her without moving his eyes away from his friend’s face, so Alex stood back clutching the other towel against her breast as she watched the were-leopard work on his friend.

Nathaniel kept his attention focused on the two neat holes on the side of Jason’s neck, so he didn’t notice Alex slowly creeping in closer to get a better look at the wound. He swiped against the lacerations he was tending and Alex immediately saw that blood continued to trickle out of the two neat holes causing her to gasp and inadvertently move in even closer to the bed as she quietly asked, “I know you said that it isn’t as bad as I think it is Nathaniel, but that so isn’t normal, right? I mean shouldn’t those bite marks have started to at least scab over or something by now?”

Nathaniel finally turned his eyes towards Alex’s face as his left hand continued to gently dab at his friend’s flesh, but before he could utter a sound Jason rolled over to give Alex a dreamy look. His lips pulled back into a soft smile as he lovingly said, “Hey Alex. Sorry but I think I need a little more time to recoup, but when I do… I promise to show you more pleasure than any man has given you again.”

Jason tried to smirk playfully at the end of his statement because he felt so proud of himself for remembering the phrase that Alex had used but he very swiftly flopped down onto his pillow with his eyes closed once he was finished speaking. Alex watched him with a worried eye until he was finished speaking. After his words penetrated her concerned mind she winced and then curled into herself away from the bed because she still wasn’t sure how she felt about what had happened between them when she woke up. More precisely she still hadn’t decided exactly what it meant for her future with him here in St. Louis and was embarrassed that he had blurted it out so easily in front of his friend. Nathaniel’s eyes remained fixed on Alex’s face as he listened to his friend’s teasing and he couldn’t help but smile.

After quickly checking that Jason’s neck wound wasn’t any worse after his moving around, Nathaniel nearly leapt off the bed so that he could rush to Alex’s side. She was slowly recoiling further and further into herself as she moved away from the bed and only stopped when she felt Nathaniel’s hand gently touch her forearm. Her eyes apprehensively moved up to look at his face before they swiftly shifted back to staring at her feet.

“Alex?” Nathaniel carefully asked just over a whisper in an effort not to spook the wary werewolf in front of him. “Alex… did you and Jason…? Did you two have…? Intercourse?”

The dark pink that spread across Alex’s cheeks and neck were answer enough for the were-leopard. “That’s great!” He nearly shouted before he scooped Alex up into an overly enthusiastic hug. “Really Alex that’s wonderful news!”

Once Nathaniel placed her back on her feet, Alex tentatively looked up at him through her lashes as she asked sounding as confused as she felt, “It’s wonderful news that Jason and I had sex? How hard up have I looked since you found me in the alley?”

“No!” Nathaniel nearly shouted over the rest of Alex’s question. “No, it’s nothing like that at all Alex, I swear. It’s just… just…”

Nathaniel paused there and twisted at the waist to give his best friend a concerned, soulful look. Alex instantly noticed the uneasiness that started to dominate the wereleopard’s gaze so she softened her tone as she gently tugged on his arm to regain his attention as she asked, “It’s just what Nathaniel? Please…” Her voice broke there and betrayed the tears she was trying to suppress, but that show of vulnerability was the thing that finally got Nathaniel to return his attention to her face. She shuddered in a breath, still trying to keep her tears at bay, before she finished her thought, “Please don’t leave me hanging. If it’s nothing, then what is it?”

Alex’s eyes continued to flitter from Nathaniel’s face, to the spot where Jason was laying on the bed, to the door to the room and back in a continuous circle in what Nathaniel correctly assumed was a nervous habit of Alex trying to identify her easiest escape route. He didn’t want to spook her, but he didn’t want to risk her trying to take off on him either, so Nathaniel place both of his hands on her shoulders with a gentle firmness in an effort to keep the young werewolf in her place. When she didn’t react negatively to that physical contact, Nathaniel then eased Alex forward to give her a firm yet gentle hug as he finally replied, “It’s just that Jean-Claude will be beyond relieved to find out that Jason almost passing out while feeding him has nothing to do with any outsider trying to flex their muscle against us or someone that doesn’t understand their power whose inadvertently interfering with us because of some spell or whatever gone awry and that it’s just because he had…” Nathaniel paused there while he tried to think of the most delicate and polite way of telling Alex his realization because so far she hadn’t been taking any of the good news he had been trying to tell her too well. Alex tried to push herself out of his embrace the instant that he fell silent and he made sure to stop her once they were able to make direct eye contact properly. Before she could try to speak he almost hurriedly continued his explanation saying, “Well Jean-Claude will be happy to know that he was just over extending himself and that this particular situation wouldn’t have happened if he had of taken the time to rest in between or if he had of made sure to recharge by nourishing his body before going to feed Jean-Claude.”

Alex’s eyebrows immediate knitted together in a confused scowl as she extracted herself from Nathaniel’s arms so slowly that he didn’t have time to protest. Once she was free she turned her eyes down to the hem of her dress that she was now gripping tightly in both of her fists as she tentatively ask, “So you don’t think…? I mean you’re sure that Jean-Claude… that our Master won’t be angry that it’s my fault that Jason… that his _pomme de sang_ nearly…? Umm… That he’s…?” She waved her hand vaguely in the direction of the sleeping werewolf as she slowly raised her head and finished (while pointedly not making eye contact with the wereleopard), “That he’s like…? That?”

“No Alex he won’t, I swear,” Nathaniel reiterated emphatically. “And he especially won’t when he sees that some rest and a good meal was all that was needed to recharge him when we were all trying to think of some magical way to fix him.”

A slow smile started to spread across Alex’s face as she started straighten up in her spot before she replied, “So if I’m hearing you correctly, Jason will be in near perfect condition if he has a proper breakfast after he wakes up from this nap?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying, why do you ask?” Nathaniel questioned now sounding confused and unsure.

The smile on Alex’s face grew into a self-assured grin as she answered, “Well I just wanted to double check because that just so happens to be one of my specialties, so I think I can take care of that and help to fix our little werewolf over there.” After she finished speaking her cheeks burned under a dark blush before she sputtered out a nervous retraction of, “I didn’t… I meant… I just… it isn’t that… I… uhh…”

Nathaniel silenced her by pulling Alex into a tight hug. “Alex that would be awesome…” He pushed her out of his embrace just enough that he could look her in the eye while he added, “And don’t be embarrassed about showing your affection for Jason because you both deserve to be happy… And if anyone teases you then all you have to do is remind them that you’re under Anita and Richard’s protection.”

Thinking of having not only the Lupa and Ulfric of their pack but the Bolverk as well as her protectors and what they could do to anyone that hurt her caused Alex’s eyes to go comically wide and her face to pale drastically. Nathaniel quickly realized where Alex’s thoughts had most likely turned, so he hugged her tightly yet again saying, “I didn’t mean it like they’ll kill someone or something as drastic as that, just that… well I was joking because I don’t think anyone will make fun of you for your relationship with Jason and I was just trying to ease your mind. I didn’t mean to make things worse, I’m so sorry Alex.”

“Don’t…” Alex replied still pressed comfortably against Nathaniel’s chest. She pushed out of his arms then forced herself to stand up straight to more confidently continue, “Don’t apologize Nathaniel. You didn’t do or say anything that was wrong, I’m just being stupid and taking everything you say out of context. I should be apologizing to you for being so overly sensitive…” She quickly raised her right hand to silence Nathaniel’s impending words of protest. “Seriously Nathaniel, you don’t. Man alive, I swear I used to be able to take a joke better than this and I promise one of these days I will find my sense of humor again.”

Nathaniel smirked then chuckled replying, “Well it sounds like you’ve already started to recover it to me and I think you are probably the best person we have in the Circus to help Jason out.” Alex’s smile morphed into a cheeky grin at Nathaniel’s praise. “Did you want me to show you to the kitchen?”

Alex started to answer ‘yes’ but paused when she caught another glimpse at Jason’s passed out form. “No that’s okay,” she replied instead. “Someone should stay with Jason just in case, y’know? Why don’t you just point me in the right direction and once he’s alert enough to walk or… you know… whatever… bring him down to the kitchen and I should have something whipped up for him to eat by then.”

Nathaniel nodded then followed Alex to the door where he pointed down the hallway that led deeper into the bowels of the Circus of the Damned and explained that that the kitchen was one of the only rooms she’d encounter that didn’t have a door. Alex found those instructions easy enough to follow, but before she continued in the direction Nathaniel had pointed she turned back to where he was standing in the open doorway to Jason’s room to quietly ask, “If I remember what you guys told me, protein is the best to help him recover, right?”

The wereleopard smiled softly as he answered, “That’s exactly right Alex.”

“Okay, good,” she said nodding a little too fast. “Good. Okay… give me a little bit and I’ll make sure I have something ready for him… oh and you… and me… I… I mean I’ll have breakfast ready.”

Before Nathaniel could utter another sound, Alex rushed down the hallway in the direction of the kitchen area. After watching her disappear down the long hallway, Nathaniel turned back towards where Jason was still passed out and sighed out an almost inaudible, “Guess it just you and me Buddy for the next little while.”

*************************************************************************************

Although true to Nathaniel’s word the kitchen wasn’t all that hard for Alex to find, searching out all of the necessary tools she would need to complete her task proved trickier than she had anticipated. Finding food in the refrigerator was easy enough, but finding the right pots, pans and bowls to complete her self-appointed task turned out to be more difficult than she had anticipated in the unfamiliar space.

Alex was finally in the midst of whipping up half a dozen eggs in a bowl to make a couple of omelets when she heard a young sing-songy voice with a mild French accent inquire, “Can I help you with anything _notre gamine_?”

The tiny, child-like voice that called out behind her caused Alex to jump and nearly drop the bowl she was holding before she turned around. When she saw the young dark haired girl whose head barely reached the top of the kitchen’s island Alex forced herself to regain her composure as she silently chuckled at her absurd reaction. Alex couldn’t help but feel stupid because she wanted to believe that she had gotten so wrapped up in her work in the kitchen (like she used to) that anyone would have caused her to flinch and jump, but once she laid eyes on the child with the brunette ringlet hair she couldn’t help but think that there was something else going on with the tiny child that had resulted in her immediate feeling of unease.

Alex’s hands didn’t stop moving because it was almost like a muscle reflex for her to whip eggs into an omelet at this point in her life, but her voice definitely did betray her otherwise calm demeanor when she stammered out, “How…? Uhh… how did you know that that’s my nickname? I… umm I don’t remember meeting you, have I…?”

The timid werewolf intentionally left her last question open ended because she was hoping that she would trip the young girl up enough that she might learn her name.

The younger female seemed to ignore the elder woman’s fear as she crawled up onto a stool so that she could watch Alex work. Once she was settled, the young vampire made a point to keep her eyes focused on Alex’s hand that had not ceased its perpetual motion as she answered, “Well by now I’m sure that everyone that lives here at the Circus has heard a few tales about Jean-Claude’s newest… pet, even without having met you.”

“You…?” Alex’s hand finally paused and she put down the bowl she was holding on the island that now separated her from where the tiny child was now seated. “You live here at the Circus of the Damned? Do your parents work here too? Should you be out wondering around on your own?”

The young girl giggled in a way that made her sound older than she appeared as she replied, “ _Toute le monde du Cirque, ce n’est pas ce que l’on croit… ma gamine._ ”

After she was finished speaking Valentina smiled wide enough to flash Alex her fangs. Alex gasped loudly and stumbled back a couple of steps as she stammered out, “You’re… y-y-you’re… a… a…”

Valentina laughed loudly and finished the other woman’s thought saying, “A vampire? Why yes Alexandria I am.” She then stood up and stalked over towards where Alex was now pressed up against a set of cabinets adding, “And I assure you I am much older than I appear so there is no need for you to fear for my safety being alone in the Circus, although I do appreciate the misguided concern.” Once she made it around the island to stand in front of the werewolf, she smiled broadly then asked with faux innocence, “Why Alexandria, what could have happened that made you so pale?”

She leaned up to try to place her face closer to Alex’s when she that she had heard Alex whisper something to her or to the room in general. Alex easily towered over the young, child-like vampire, but somehow Valentina made herself look like she was many feet taller than she really was when she asked in a harsh sounding whisper, “ _Excusez-moi? As-tu dit quelque chose à moi?_ ”

Hearing the ‘little girl’ in front of her ask… no demand if Alex had said something to her in a tone that made it sound like the little vampire wanted to actually ask something along the lines of ‘how dare you deign to speak to me’ caused the werewolf to stand a little taller in her place. Unconsciously she let some of her incredible power leak into the room which actually made the little girl stumble as she replied, “ _J’ai dit_ … my name is Alex.”

Valentina chuckled sinisterly at the taller woman’s response and flex of power, but before she could speak again she heard, “And since you know so much about me it only seems fair that you tell me your name.”

Once again the diminutive vampire issued out and all too adult sounding chuckle and much to both her and Alex’s surprise was interrupted before she could reply by Nathaniel’s authoritative shout of, “Valentina! What are you doing… uh… here?”

“Valentina? What a pretty name. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Alex,” the werewolf cut-in with a pleasant smile.

The vampire giggled, this time sounding more like the little girl she resembled, and curtsied. “Most everyone is awake right now, so there should be someone available to feed you now Valentina,” Nathaniel reported before Valentina could utter a response to the werewolf.

Valentina opened her mouth as if she was going to protest, but the look on Nathaniel’s face kept her from completing that thought. Instead she gave him a demure smile and curtsied in Alex’s direction and said, “It was a pleasure to meet you Alexandria, until next time.”

Alex watched the vampire leave the room with a little skip in her step and as soon as she disappeared out the door, the werewolf flopped against the kitchen island and finally placed the bowl she had been holding on the counter top gasping out a breathy, “Holy shit.”

“She… she didn’t hurt you, did she Alex?” Nathaniel questioned frantically with a gentle hand on her upper back to try to comfort her.

After staring at Nathaniel’s worried face for a couple of breaths, his question finally registered so Alex shook her head, stood up straight and replied, “I’m… I’m fine Nathaniel… Well she didn’t hurt me at all, but… Umm… How…? I mean… Isn’t it illegal to turn a minor? How is it that she’s…? Umm… Here? And I don’t mean St. Louis, I meant how old is she? When was she…? Uhh… Sired? That’s the term, right?”

The blush that had started to color Alex’s cheeks grew darker when she saw the sly grin that was spread across Nathaniel’s face. She nearly retracted her question as she started to shy away from his touch, but he quickly jumped in answering, “Yeah, yeah that’s the right term. And she was… sired long before vampires were declared legal citizens and governments created laws to try to control them.”

“Before…?” Alex asked without trying to hide her astonishment. “That… that means that… she’s… she’s over 250 years old?”

“Give or take a century and a bit,” Nathaniel replied in a tone of faux nonchalance. “I honestly don’t know exactly how old she is, but the vampire that sired her was killed just a little over three centuries ago, so I can only assume she’s about that age.”

Nathaniel gave Alex a moment to digest that piece of information. He was just about ready to once again try to comfort her until she leveled him with a steely glare that softened slightly before she quietly questioned, “But how…? I mean she looks like a little girl but she’s actually old enough to be my great, great, great, great, grandmother or something… How…? What…?”

Picking up on Alex’s confusion quickly, Nathaniel saved her from having to complete her thought saying, “Treat her as if she’s the age she looks… most of the time.” The knitting of the werewolf’s brow didn’t surprise the wereleopard so he further explained, “She prefers for people to treat her like the child that she resembles and most of the time she will act that way, but she usually only does that so that people will forget that she’s centuries old, which means…”

“That she has some power. There’s no way she could have survived that long if there wasn’t some bite behind her bark… so to speak.”

Alex was rewarded with one of Nathaniel’s less rare, brilliant smiles before he said, “That’s exactly it. But with you being one of Jean-Claude’s business partners I think she’ll try to behave herself with you so that she doesn’t anger him. But that being said, you shouldn’t ever forget that she isn’t the sweet innocent child she was when she was turned into a vampire, even when she allows you to treat her like one.”

“I get it Nathaniel, I promise that I do. She’s a devil in disguise that doesn’t want anyone to know what she truly is so that she can own them. It’s a little mind boggling, but I think I can keep from forgetting that.” She placed her hand over one of his that was now resting on the kitchen island and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “But before I get into that, why don’t I tackle a task I know I can conquer? I’ve found most everything that I need, but could you maybe help a girl out and pull out a cast iron skillet that I’m sure I haven’t been able to find yet?”

Although it didn’t seem physically possible, Nathaniel’s bright grin widened at Alex’s request. He remained silent as he moved around the kitchen and then pulled out not one but two skillets from a cupboard on the other side of the room. He held them both up and asked with a cheeky grin, “What size would you prefer?”

*************************************************************************************

It didn’t take long for a curious few to become a kitchen filled with bodies that had eager mouths that were now waiting to be fed. Nathaniel quickly took a post beside Alex to assist her in any way that she needed. Their partnership hit a couple of rough patches at the beginning but the wereleopard was a quick learner and he easily adapted so that he was now finally a helper instead of a hindrance to their process. Right now that meant that he was either chopping vegetables, slicing meats, grating cheese, whipping eggs or taking orders from newcomers for what kind of omelette they wanted ‘Chef Alex’ to prepare for their breakfast or dinner depending on what shift they were working that day.

The two of them of course had made sure that Jason was fed before they attempted to fall into any type of routine while cooking for the other guards. At first Alex was being beyond stubborn and hard-headed as she tried to continue working completely on her own. It had been so long since she had had the privilege to work in a kitchen with supplies of this caliber that she hadn’t wanted to relinquish her hold on any part of the process. But as the crowd in the kitchen grew larger and the orders became too plentiful for her to remember on her own, Alex finally caved and then sheepishly asked Nathaniel for his assistance. The wereleopard was so elated to be the ‘Sous-Chef’ for the great Lexie Hughes that he completely forgot to gloat and rib her with at least one teasing ‘I told you so’.

Alex was absolutely beaming as she plated yet another gourmet omelette and passed it off to the guard who had ordered it. It felt like the crowd wasn’t changing at all, but in reality the patrons were just on a constant rotation when one person finished their meal they got up from their seat and place their plate into the dishwasher so the next were-animal could have a seat to enjoy their meal. Nathaniel tried to keep an eye on the dishwasher so that he could start a load once it was full, but he became so busy in his role as Alex’s right hand man that he completely missed seeing one of the wererat guards scurry away after finding the last open spot in the top tray to shove in his soiled plate.

Although Nathaniel hadn’t witnessed that action, Claudia immediately noticed the cagey look on the young wererat’s face as he called out another almost awkward ‘thank you’ as he left the room, so she got up to investigate. Since her plate was far from empty she was confident that she wouldn’t lose her seat. Nathaniel took notice of Claudia moving around to his side of the kitchen’s island. It didn’t take long for his eyes to drift over to the dishwasher where he could now see that its door was closed, so he started to move towards it, but he was quickly waved off by Claudia.

“I’m more than capable of starting a load of dishes… You keep working to keep the hungry masses happy,” the wererat commented with a hint of humor in her tone.

Nathaniel just gave her a grateful smile as his reply then he turned back towards the cutting board to continue chopping some more vegetables. After she had filled the washer with detergent, Claudia decided to take it upon herself to check on their cutlery and dish supplies for the seemingly never ending line up of hungry security guards that were finding their way to the kitchen at an almost alarming rate. Just as she had suspected with the dishwasher being filled to capacity, the cupboards were now pretty much bare. Ever the problem solver, she quickly located the bottle of dish soap and took it upon herself to wash any newly emptied dishes by hand so that there would be at least a few clean dishes to help tie over the masses until the dishwasher was finished doing its job.

The crowd fell into a quiet, contented murmur while Alex worked tirelessly at the stove and Nathaniel continued moving around the kitchen while trying to anticipate Alex’s every want or need. For the most part the two of them had now fallen into perfect synch and made their work together look effortless. Alex Nathaniel to beam with a smile that was usually reserved for Anita and Micah in their home away from the Circus.

“Mmm… Something sure does smell good!” An overly cheerful male voice called out from the doorway.

Somehow Nathaniel’s one thousand watt smile managed to shine even brighter when he heard the new-comer. “It’s the bacon. Everything smells and tastes better with bacon Sin,” the wereleopard managed to answer through his smile.

Everyone let out a soft chuckle at that reply and then they quickly returned to their food. Once again a near reverent hush went over the crowd until it was broken by a loud, meaty sounding smack.

“OW!” The young weretiger griped as he quickly pulled his hand away from one of the frying pans that was still on the stove and the spatula Alex had used to hit him.

Nathaniel couldn’t help but to let out a snicker as he heard Alex comment in a dead pan voice (without turning her attention away from the omelette she was currently working on to complete), “Next time you lose a finger.”

“But I ---.” Sin’s petulant reply was cut short by Alex turning her head to glare at him. Her eyes flashed a bright molten gold color as the heat of her power quickly surged through the room. The younger weretiger gasped and then his eyes flashed a brighter blue color at Alex’s power briefly brushing against his own. Sin had started to back off but now that the initial shock of her appearance and the short touch of power had passed, he stood up taller and leaned forward with a soft growl trickling from his lips. Alex refused to relinquish any of her control when she was in the kitchen, so she turned her body to fully face the wereanimal that was challenging her with her own renewed trickle of power and intense growl emanating from deep within her throat.

When they saw Alex’s hands start to show the tell-tale signs that they were going to start to shift, Nathaniel and Claudia jumped into action. The wererat went to Alex’s side, hoping that she could calm the werewolf by being a female presence since it appeared that it was Sin’s masculine power that had caused her to react so negatively. Nathaniel used his preternatural speed to rush around the island to his little brother’s side to make his own attempts to calm the weretiger’s flex of power.

They both placed a hand on their target’s forearm at the exact same time, but before they could utter a word the whole room was silenced by a quiet burst of laughter that floated through the room and filled it with a soft warmth. “ _Ma gamine, ma gamine…_ I would have thought that our kitchen would have pleased you greatly and yet here I find you on the verge of fighting a duel with one of _ma petite’s_ animal’s to call.”

All of the color instantly drained from Alex’s face as she slumped against Claudia’s muscular frame at hearing Jean-Claude’s words. The wererat quickly shifted her hold on the werewolf so that she wouldn’t drop the smaller woman and to attempt to make her more comfortable in her grasp.

“He’s… he’s… I didn’t… I mean…” Alex stuttered unintelligibly as her knees started to give out on her.

Nathaniel squeezed Sin’s arm hard enough that it would bruise, even a wereanimal, sternly saying, “Sin isn’t completely innocent in this Jean-Claude. Alex may have very briefly flashed her power, but he was the one who pushed his against her first. Isn’t that right, **Cynric**?” Nathaniel put an emphasis on the weretiger’s full name to demonstrate how frustrated he was with him at the moment.

The weretiger’s head whipped around so that he could give Nathaniel the full weight of his wounded gaze. Nathaniel’s jaw flexed as he shook his head abruptly from left to right to prove to Sin that that look wouldn’t work on him. Sin then slumped in his spot and hung his head in shame. When he raised his face again he kept his eyes locked on the Master of the City. He straightened his stance and took a small step away from Nathaniel as he sheepishly explained, “Nathaniel’s right Jean-Claude, I started it… she was just defending herself…” His cheeks turned pink as he moved to face Alex adding, “And her food. I’m really sorry…” He paused and gave Nathaniel a pleading look to which the wereleopard whispered in reply. “Alex… her name is Alex.”

Sin nodded then squared his shoulders and tried his apology again. “I’m really sorry Alex for being so rude. I honestly didn’t mean any disrespect… it’s just that everything smells so good and I’m always totally hungry after football practice. I really do hope that you can forgive me.”

By the end of his apology Sin found himself wrapped in Nathaniel’s comforting arms with his back resting against Nathaniel’s front. He allowed himself to sink into the other man’s embrace feeling completely relieved that he had at least been forgiven by the wereleopard. With the back of his head now resting against Nathaniel’s shoulder, Sin turned his piercing blue eyes towards Alex and used them to silently plead with her once again for forgiveness.

Alex was now standing on her own and was wringing her hands in front of her. Claudia had moved away from that part of the kitchen so that she could leave the Master of the City to resolve the issue between the two wereanimals. Alex wasn’t making eye contact with anyone, but she still looked thoroughly embarrassed as she meekly replied, “It’s okay. I may have over-reacted more than a little bit too, so really I should probably be apologizing to you. I mean… you are one of my Lupa’s animals to call… I never should have acted that way towards you. I… I’ll… I’ll just…”

As her words trailed off, Alex slowly crept her way towards the door. Jean-Claude issued another of his nearly touchable laughs that caused Alex to freeze in her spot and shiver. He carefully moved towards her and almost looked like he was gliding across the room as he made his way to her side. Alex jumped slightly and gasped when she felt Jean-Claude’s hand touch her arm and almost shied away from him when he tried to place his arm around her shoulders. Worried that she had insulted the Master and his entourage enough already that she didn’t want to compact that by rejecting his comforting gesture and allowed herself to relax slightly under his hand.

“ _Ma gamine_ you are being too hard on yourself. Our young tiger has a tendency of pushing his limits and now that he has become more comfortable here at the Circus I fear that he has grown much bolder and much more daring.”

Cynric blushed darkly after sharing a look with Jean-Claude that Alex couldn’t quite decipher. He then ducked his head coquettishly and quietly said, “I didn’t mean to over step.”

“And I am sure that all has been forgiven _mon tigreau bleu_ , but one must never forget that one must respect a chef and their kitchen at all times. _N’est pas ma gamine_?”

“ _Oui vous avez raison mon maître_ ,” Alex replied with a sad looking smile. She finally looked up from her feet and caught Sin’s very confused looking scowl on his face. She let out a short laugh then said to him, “I was just telling our Master that he was right about the whole chef’s being totally neurotic about everything that goes on in their kitchens.”

Sin’s lips pulled back into a warm smile as he playfully replied, “Yeah I kind of picked up on that. And I promise never to do that again. A piece of bacon totally isn’t worth you cutting off any body parts.”

Alex hid her face in her hands and groaned loudly. She slowly pulled her hands away from her face explaining, “I said that? God I haven’t used that threat in years. I sorry… I sort of zone out when I’m standing at the stove. This one time, I told one of my servers that I would be serving him one of his more vulnerable body parts in a sauce if he tried taste-testing it. He waited until the end of his shift to quit and I was beyond floored that he was leaving us because I seriously didn’t remember saying that to him. He of course had more than one member of the kitchen staff on hand to back him up, so I let him go and made sure to give him a generous severance package out of my own pocket and put in a good word for him at a few of the other five star restaurants in the city. When I opened my own place I made sure to hire a sous-chef who understood that part of their job description was to run interference between me and other staffers to keep that from happening again.” She let out a small, self-deprecating laugh before looking over at Nathaniel. “You were doing such an amazing job as my right hand man that I forgot I wasn’t back in my kitchen in Seattle.”

Nathaniel blushed then replied, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“And you should because it most certainly was meant to be one.”

They shared a soft smile and their moment was only interrupted when Jean-Claude cleared his throat and said, “ _Bon_ so it appears that we’ve cleared up that misunderstanding. Now _ma gamine_ let me take a look at you…” Jean-Claude placed a hand on each of the werewolf’s shoulders so that he could turn her and inspect the outfit that she was wearing. Alex opened her mouth to question him about what he was doing and then immediately thought better of it and stood there stock still while being held by Jean-Claude’s scrutinizing gaze. He gently turned her around so that he could fully examine her apparel before saying, “ _Bon. Ça va faire bien. Tu es très belle ma gamine_.”

“ _Ce n’est pas moi… ces des beaux vêtements que vous avez choisir pour moi_.”

“Aww crap! She speaks French fluently too? Does this mean that I have to learn it so that I can follow conversations around here?” Sin questioned with a whine that made him sound at least ten years younger than his true age of being in his late teens.

“Oh my apologies _mon tigreau_ ,” Jean-Claude replied with a hearty laugh. “It appears that _ma gamine_ and I have forgotten ourselves for a moment.”

“Ma… ma gah… gaming? What does that mean?”

Everyone that was left in the room (pretty much every guard except for Claudia and two others had left the room when Jean-Claude had first arrived, many of them with their food in hand) smiled at his question. Nathaniel and Jean-Claude allowed themselves to laugh quietly while Alex patiently explained, “Gah-mean. It means ‘pup’ in French because I’m… you know new to the pack and all.”

“ _Gamine_ ,” Sin repeated slowly, getting the pronunciation practically perfect. “That’s pretty cute.”

“Thanks,” Alex replied with a renewed blush coloring her cheeks. “And as our Master said, we let ourselves forget we weren’t alone. Sorry for that. But then again we were just talking about my clothes, so I’m not too sure you really missed out on much with that conversation.”

Sin made a sour-puss face at that explanation. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Girls’ clothing isn’t exactly at the top of my list of interests.”

Alex shared a smile with him and let out a sigh of relief. Somehow she and Cynric had managed to go from nearly tearing each other apart to laughing at one of her stupid jokes without any blood being spilled. She hadn’t thought that that was actually possible, despite everything Nathaniel and Micah had being saying to her, but now she could see their point. Maybe wereanimals truly weren’t just slaves to the animals with which they shared their bodies. Maybe she wasn’t completely, certifiably insane for thinking that her plan could actually work.

Now sporting a somewhat goofy grin on her face, Alex turned to Jean-Claude to say, “And as beautiful as this dress is, I’ve got a blazer hanging by the door and heels to wear while we meet with your realtor… Sir.”

The vampire let out a bark of a laugh that surprised everyone in the room including himself. “Alexandria there is no need for you to call me ‘Sir’… or ‘Master’ for that matter. Please?”

“Alright I can do that if you knock off with calling me ‘Alexandria’.”

Jean-Claude tilted his chin down just enough to make it look like a nod. “Agreed. Now for the reason I sought you out. As you predicted my realtor has found what she believes will be suitable buildings for us to renovate into your vision for our establishment.” He offered her his arm with a warm smile asking, “Shall we go now?”

Alex started to take a step towards him then stopped and frowned at a thought that hit her. “Uh… Sin… I… he… he never got to place an order and after everything I think he more than deserves to get the meal he wants.”

“Oh no if you and Jean-Claude have plans, don’t worry about me. I can just make a sandwich or something.”

That response elicited another stern scowl from the werewolf, so Nathaniel quickly jumped in offering, “I can make him something else. We have everything chopped and whipped still so I could always cook him up a gourmet omelette. It may not be as good as yours, but I promise he’ll eat something better than a simple sandwich.”

Alex walked over to Nathaniel and went up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek before replying, “And I’m sure that it will rival anything that I could prepare for him. Thank you Nathaniel.”

There was a slight hitch in Alex’s voice when she said her words of thanks leading Nathaniel to correctly believe that she was grateful for more than just his making sure to feed the weretiger a proper meal, from her standards. She ignored the questioning look on his face and swiftly moved over to where her blazer was hanging so that she could put it on and then she slipped on her heels. Nathaniel watched her with an increasingly sad look on his face because he wanted to question her about why her voice had showed so much emotion. Jean-Claude seemed to instinctively understand what was happening and placed a soft hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder to obtain his attention. He shared a knowing smile with the wereleopard and waited until Nathaniel nodded in understanding.

Jean-Claude then turned towards Alex who was now standing in a pair of two inch heels and straightening out her blazer against her dress. He smiled a little more broadly as he stepped towards her and once again offered her his arm. She immediately slipped her hand through the bend of his elbow until her palm rested his forearm playfully saying, “ _On y va_.”

Her penchant to speak in French made Jean-Claude laugh as he replied, “Yes, here we go.”


	8. Chapter 8

Alex followed closely behind Jean-Claude up the front stairs to his establishment called ‘Guilty Pleasures’. With every step that she took she could practically feel the blush spreading across her cheeks, neck and chest get darker and darker. It wasn’t until she placed her foot on the first step that she realized that she had never once been inside a place like this before and for some reason that was completely throwing her off right now.

She had never considered herself to be sheltered or have lived a guarded life in any way, but right now she felt terribly innocent and naïve. She and her girlfriends had never once contemplated entering an establishment such as this one in all their years of having a night out on the town. Even when they had made their annual ‘Girls Only’ retreat in Las Vegas and were more than a two sheets to the wind, they had never stumbled in to see the Chippendale Dancers or even the Thunder from Down Under for that matter. If they were seeing naked male flesh, it would be within the confines of their room or some random dark corner for a quick rendezvous. Bachelorette parties got typically crazy, out of control and risqué, but again male strippers were never included in those events. It was strange in a way, especially now that she was practically dating one.

Dating? Alex mentally groaned at how juvenile she felt that she was acting and allowing her thoughts to be. She had only been in town for about a week and she and Jason had only had sex that one time and now she what? Was she seriously thinking that they were boyfriend and girlfriend? Great next she was going to be wearing his letterman’s jacket every day, no matter what the weather was like or if it was appropriate while she waited with bated breath for him to ask her to wear his ring. Or worse yet, she might be waiting for him to give her his pin. That was one custom that she had seen in more than one movie and it still made absolutely no sense to her at all. No she wasn’t a little girl anymore, so she had to do away with such childish thoughts. If she and Jason were going to be in a relationship, and right now that was feeling like a big IF because they had yet to broach that topic of conversation together, she knew that she couldn’t allow herself to treat it like a school-girl crush. She refused to allow herself to wear her heart on her sleeve like she had so many times in the past because all that that ever did was lead to pain and loss. She had suffered enough devastating blows recently that she was afraid that the next one would actually be the last. That the next one would be the one that would end it all for her. Well if not for her, then it would make her want to end her existence once and for all.

No. She had just found her new lease on life in the last couple of months and she wasn’t going to let anything take that away from her. Her plans had actually started coming together and the ball was finally starting to get the ball rolling in the right direction for her future and she wasn’t going to let anything get in the way or to derail those plans if she could help it. No matter how beautiful their blue eyes were when they were practically boring a hole into her soul.

No, no amount of puppy love would distract her from her goals… or so she hoped. Once again she groaned silently at that train of thought because now she was thinking in puns. Not just any kind of pun, but incredibly corny, embarrassingly stupid puns at that. In a way she wanted just to be able to forget the blond haired, blue eyed werewolf to some extent, but then her thoughts would drift back to him and she would turn completely mushy, mind and body. Even worse than that, she would begin to feel butterflies start to violently flutter in her stomach and she’d practically lose all ability to think straight… Just like she was feeling right now.

Alex hadn’t noticed that her feet had stopped moving until she felt Jean-Claude gently touch her shoulder. “ _Ma gamine_ , if you do not feel comfort able entering, you may wait outside here and I will ask Jason to meet you outside here. You will be safe here until his arrival, I assure you that.”

“No,” Alex replied immediately, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. “That’s alright… I mean I’m fine with going inside and all. Really Jean-Claude I’m okay.”

He gave her a sad, sympathetic smile then said, “Your words say that you are fine, but your face… _ton visage dit une histoire différente_.”

Alex smiled as he placed his hand on her cheek and gently stroked his thumb against her prominent cheek bone. “I was just thinking too hard about the restaurant we’re starting and everything that’s to be done with it. Honestly, this look? It’s just me being over excited and over thinking about everything that’s happened tonight and what it means for tomorrow and the rest of my future. I swear it’s nothing bad. _Je suis bien. Mon visage est un menteur_ ,” she lied with what she hoped was an easy-going smile on her face.

Jean-Claude gave her a knowing smile but did nothing else to demonstrate that he was aware that her face was not the only one who was not being truthful with him right now. Alex cast her eyes down to the cement stairs to keep herself from having to maintain such painfully direct eye contact with the Master of the City. Jean-Claude wanted to try to force her to tell him the truth because he wanted to know what had caused such an abrupt change in her demeanor. He knew that there were fairly simple ways to force that information from her, but he wanted to give her time to adjust so that she would feel comfortable enough to share such feelings without any coercion. Well share such feelings with him since he already knew there was one member of their motley crew with whom she was cozy enough to share those thoughts and feelings without any hesitation.

With that thought in mind, Jean-Claude pet her cheek then affectionately said, “ _Bon_. Why don’t we go inside and share our good news with your… new friends before the night gets to be too late?”

Alex raised her face and couldn’t help but smile when she realized that she was not going to be caught in her lie, well not yet at least. “Yes let’s!” She then agreed with a fake enthusiasm that she hoped sounded completely genuine and sincere.

Jean-Claude slid his hand from her face and let lit linger on her shoulder for a brief moment and suddenly Alex worried that she wasn’t actually in the clear. Maybe she tried to play too cheerful and too upbeat the now it was sounding forced. Although that was in fact the truth, she had thought that she could mask her feelings better than she was currently. Jean-Claude of course knew that her enthusiasm was false and he didn’t mind letting her know that he was somewhat onto her and for a brief moment he almost used this opportunity to force the honest truth out of her, but that thought passed almost as quickly as it had come to him. He then let his hand drift down her arm so that he could take a gentle hold of her limp hand to lead her up the rest of the stairs and inside the club.

Alex almost let out an audible sigh of relief when Jean-Claude took her hand and turned towards the door. This time as she made her way up the stairs she felt herself relax a bit with every step she took. She reminded herself that she shouldn’t get ahead of her herself, in either a positive or negative light, because she could only take care of things one thing at a time. Right now she could revel in the fact that they found a spot for her restaurant that appeared more than adequate and the next step was to plan out the renovations for it. Well in the absolute honest truth, the next step was to tell Jason and Nathaniel and to have a mini celebration with them before continuing on with the plans she, Jean-Claude and Asher had for the restaurant itself.

It was late enough into the night that there was little to no line up to get inside Guilty Pleasures, but Jean-Claude still made sure to stop and greet the man working the door. He prided himself on how well things ran in St. Louis and what was owed in part to how he treated every that worked for him or was under his protection. They all felt that he genuinely cared for them so he tried his best to give them one on one attention when he could, no matter how brief a time that may be.

The bouncer that was working the door stood up at attention when they reached the top step. The bouncer smiled broadly, flashing some fang to prove he was a vampire, as he said, “Good evening Jean-Claude.” He then noticed that the older vampire was holding a wereanimal’s hand that he didn’t recognize and he couldn’t quite hid the quick look of surprise that flashed across his face before adding, “And a hello to your… uhh… companion too.”

“Good evening to you as well Buzz,” Jean-Claude replied sounding slightly amused. “Since you will be seeing a lot more of each other, let me introduce the two of you… Buzz, this is Alex Hughes. She is one of my newest business partners.”

Alex instinctively took a step towards Buzz and thrust out her right hand towards him. Buzz stared at it for a moment, looking slightly confused and like he wasn’t used to people being so formally introduced to him. Once again that moment passed quickly and soon Alex found her hand wrapped in his while he pumped her arm up and down vigorously.

His enthusiasm caused Alex to chuckle softly to herself. After taking a deep breath to calm herself down enough so that she could speak, Alex froze completely in her spot. Both vampires noticed the abrupt shift in her body language and reacted to it immediately. Jean-Claude went so still that you would have thought that he had disappeared if you weren’t looking at him, while Buzz just froze in hi sport as well, but he looked ill-at-ease and incredibly awkward where and how he stood.

“I know you,” Alex stated in a very sure tone while managing not to make it sound accusatory in any way.

Buzz’s eyes moved from her face to Jean-Claude’s as if to ask him for some guidance. Alex noticed that there was too much white showing in the vampire’s eyes and that her statement had seemed to frighten him somewhat. She then realized her mistake and amended her previous declaration saying, “I meant to say that we’ve met before, haven’t we? You… uh… you…”

Jean-Claude took a breath and his whole body relax and looked like it had been brought back to life. He knew what Alex wanted to say and laughed softly at her reluctance to say what they all knew was true. “It’s alright _ma gamine_ , finish your thought. Neither of us will think ill of you.”

“Alright… I guess,” Alex replied with a shallow nod. “I was going to say that you ‘smell’ familiar, but now that I’ve said it out loud, it sounds so stupid and kind of creepy.”

Alex shrank back in her spot beside Jean-Claude when she finished speaking and was looking very unsure of herself again. Buzz looked another question Jean-Claude’s way to which the older vampire nodded and stepped back from both the werewolf and other vampire to give them some space.

Buzz then raked an appraising eye over Alex very slowly moving his gaze from her head to her toes. “Well you don’t look familiar and I never forget a pretty face.” Alex smiled demurely at his compliment. Buzz then took a step forward and inhaled deeply over her head which caused her to jump slightly and let out a surprised, high pitched ‘yip’ of a sound. “And I’m sorry to say that I can’t say the same about you. I don’t think I’d be able to forget your scent either if I had had the pleasure before.” The bouncer then shrugged and moved back to his post saying, “But it is nice to meet you Alex. Welcome to St. Louis.”

Jean-Claude watched them both in silence until Buzz returned to sit on his high stool by the entrance. He then issued one of his spine-tingling laughs that once again caused Alex to shiver in her spot. “Actually Buzz _ma gamine_ is in fact quite correct; you two have met before, however brief the encounter may have been.” Both of them turned to the Master of the City with their own version of a confused scowl on their face. Jean-Claude laughed again, Alex visibly shuddered and then he explained, “Buzz Alex was the young werewolf that you found in the alley behind here with Nathaniel and Jason about a week ago.”

“She is?” Buzz then turned to Alex, gave her a quick once over and smiled in what could be thought of as ‘seductively’ to say, “You are? Wow, you sure do look different when you aren’t screaming bloody murder when I’m trying to touch you.”

He chuckled at his joke, but Alex just stared at him in shock as she stuttered out, “I… I… I’m so sorry. I was… it was the pain… I didn’t… I wasn’t really thinking straight…”

“Hey, it’s no biggie. I didn’t take it personally since you did the same thing to Nathaniel too.”

She looked up at Jean-Claude and asked in a low whisper, “I did?”

“ _Oui ma gamine_. From what I’ve been told and understand, you wouldn’t allow anyone but Jason to touch or carry you to the Circus of the Damned. We are all quite certain that you only permitted him to do so because he has the familiar scent of Richard’s pack.”

“Really? Because I honestly don’t remember any of that. The first thing I remember about being here is waking up in your bed with Jason’s arms wrapped around me and Micah trying to lick my face.”

Jean-Claude tucked a stray hair behind her ear replying, “And for that we are all eternally grateful. It is enough that you had to endure as much pain as you did to get to us, none of us want you to ever have to relive it, even in memory.” Alex blushed then ducked her head down, once again embarrassed by his kind and affectionate words. Jean-Claude let his gaze linger on her for a moment before he turned his attention to the other vampire to ask, “Do you know if Jason is in the office right now?”

Buzz’s eyes flickered from Jean-Claude to Alex and back before his lips pulled back into a fang flashing smile as he answered, “There was an emergency…”

“Is he alright?” Alex interrupted nearly in a panic.

“Yeah, he’s fine,” Buzz answered with a nonchalant air. “Nathaniel had to rush to… ahem… ‘assist’ Anita with something, so Jason’s having to pull double duty for the time being.”

As Buzz’s eyes flicked towards Alex without her noticing, Jean-Claude smirked and replied, “I understand. Thank you Buzz.”

“Any time Boss.”

Jean-Claude then turned towards the door, but was stopped by Alex placing a hand on his wrist before he could open the door. He moved only his head to look at the werewolf as she asked, “If it’s an emergency involving Nathaniel and my Lupa, are you sure that you shouldn’t go to them? Won’t you be needed there?”

“No _ma gamine_ I am where I need to be.” Alex scowled and nearly asked Jean-Claude what he meant and how that could be, but he cut her off by adding, “I don’t believe that ‘emergency’ was a completely accurate term to use. Were it an emergency by the definition you understand it to be use, I would have already been alerted to it. Since I have had no warnings or calls for my assistance, I will have to assume that it is a situation that _ma petite_ and Nathaniel can handle on their own.”

“Oh… okay… Yeah that makes sense… I guess. I mean, if you’re sure and all.”

“I am in fact very sure,” Jean-Claude stated with a hint of humor leaking into his tone. “But I will be sure to check in with them later to make sure to check in with them later to make certain that everything was resolved without any major issues or concerns.”

Alex gave him a self-conscious smile as she walked through the door that he now held open for her. Without turning to look at him, she tried to sound unconcerned when she replied, “If you think that’s best.”

There was something about the newest werewolf of the pack that Jean-Claude found highly amusing and utterly intriguing. Most of the time she appeared self-conscious and insecure when dealing with the other vampires and lycanthropes in St. Louis, but every once in a while he caught a glimpse of her ‘other self’. The self that he suspected was in fact closer to being her ‘true self’. There were times, like this one, where he could sense a confidence about her and could see her fighting with herself from trying to become more of a leader than a follower. He could tell that she was very concerned about Nathaniel and that she was prepared to step in to help, if she was in charge. Since she wasn’t a leader here, yet, Jean-Claude could tell that she nearly had to physically restrain herself to keep from overstepping or saying what she perceived to be the wrong thing. It was his hope that once she was back in her own kitchen on a regular basis that her confidence would continue to grow and these moments of awkwardness would become fewer and further between.

Once they were through the door Jean-Claude placed a soft hand on Alex’s forearm to pause her in her place. “Before we continue on I would like to double check on a few things, if you wouldn’t mind waiting here for me?”

Alex almost blurted out “What things?” But once again she restrained herself and instead nodded then replied, “Of course I don’t mind at all. I’ll… uh… I’ll just wait for you right here.”

To his disappointment, Jean-Claude once again saw Alex extinguish the spark that had flashed in her eye and this time he nearly did comment on it. He wanted so desperately for her to feel free to be herself and to speak her mind. He of course did understand why she filtered her emotions and actions so much and to a certain extent he did appreciate it. Her willingness to act more submissive and to do what she could to avoid confrontations, even though it was the opposite of what she was truly feeling, had helped her escape any major conflicts with m in any of the other wereanimals, especially her Lupa, and he was confident that she would find a way to maintain that balance once she became more comfortable in the city he hoped she would one day call home.

Alex tried to give him an encouraging smile because he appeared to be lingering in his place. He almost physically shook his head to clear his thoughts before saying, “I should only be a minute.”

Alex nodded and remained rigidly still in her place as she watched him continue down a long dark hallway. She soon sound herself looking around where she was standing and finally started to take it all in. So far the entrance here reminded her of just about any other (in her head she thought ‘regular night club’ and instantly felt guilty) nightclub that she had been to in the past. To one side there was the prerequisite ‘coat check’ area and past it a hallway that she presumed led to the offices in the back since that was the direction to which Jean-Claude disappeared. IN the opposite direction there was another door that she assumed led to the actual club itself and that was about all that was around her.

While remaining cemented to her place Alex tried to imagine what it would look like on the other side of that door. Since that was where the… guys performed she reasoned that there would have to be a stage of some sort. But how would it be positioned? Would it be placed traditionally and more of a theater style in the front of the room or would it be more like in the movies where there were smaller, thinner stages that dancers could get closer to the customers no matter where they were on the floor without leaving the stage? And if they could get closer, did that mean that the spectators would try to touch the dancers? Were they even allowed to do that? When Jason was on stage did they get to touch him? And how much were they allowed to touch? Because if you were watching his lean, tight muscles move his body to the beat of the music, who wouldn’t want to try to get a piece of him? To touch his…

“Excuse me Miss… Miss? You can’t go in there.”

Alex shook her head at the sound of the voice intruding her racing thoughts. She seemed to come out of her daze to full ‘consciousness’ and noticed that not only had she moved from her spot, she had actually placed her hand on the door handle and had started opening it. A shrill, excited scream hit her just before she slammed the door shut once again and then she turned to face the new-comer, feeling eternally grateful that the lights were dimmed down very low to help cover up the fact that she was once again blushing quite profusely.

“Oh I didn’t… I’m sorry… I…” Alex stuttered out before stopping herself. She then took in a deep breath to more calmly state, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt or anything… I was just curious.”

The female that had addressed her took a step forward and chuckled softly. “No it isn’t that, you just can’t go into the club while you’re wearing that.”

She jutted her chin in Alex’s general direction at the end of her statement. Alex wasn’t sure to which article of clothing she was referring, so she scowled deeply while she tried to figure it out. Since the woman in front of her had come from what looked like the coat check booth, Alex figured that she had been referring to her blazer and moved to take it off even though she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why a blazer would be considered to be against dress code in a night club.

The coat-check woman immediately realized that Alex had misunderstood her and chuckled again, much louder this time. “No the blazer is fine… Well you might actually get too warm inside there wearing it, but there’s no rule against it. I was talking about your necklace.”

She then pointed to a sign above the door that Alex hadn’t noticed. Alex scanned it quickly and once again frowned saying, “But I’m not religious. This… (she held up her pendant to emphasize her point) this is just 10k white gold with some alexandrite stones. I’m not wearing it because I believe in God and want His protection, I’m wearing it as a memorial to its original owner.”

“Yes, but it’s still a cross and since some of our performers are vampires they are strictly forbidden within the club, so I’ll have to ask you to remove it if you are going to go past those doors. Once your night is over here at Guilty Pleasures I will return it to you on your way out.”

“No, I never take it off. Plus I don’t believe in God so it isn’t like I could use it to hurt anyone even if I wanted to, not that I want to or anything,” Alex argued clutching her pendant tightly in her right hand.

The coat-check girl looked thoroughly confused by their argument because she had yet to have a customer challenge her on this rule. Everyone that attended one of Jean-Claude’s clubs knew about this rule and either left their religious paraphernalia at home or handed it over quickly when it had been pointed out to them. No one had ever argued with her, let alone flat out refused to turn it over like Alex was and it caught her slightly off guard for a moment or two before she decided it wasn’t really a fight she was willing to pursue.

As such, she then just shrugged and turned to walk back to her booth saying, “Have it your way, but there’s no way you’re going in there with it on, so you might as well just go back out that door you just came through.”

“No, you don’t understand! I have to go in there. I… I need to talk to someone,” Alex pleaded while gently grabbing the other woman’s forearm.

She turned back to face Alex and raised a questioning brow at the werewolf’s physical contact with her. Her initial instinct was just to get angry with the potential customer for not only arguing with her but for having the audacity to touch her, however the look on Alex’s face caused her to think differently. The woman touching her looked so utterly devastated what she sighed and slumped slightly in her place, feeling almost completely deflated.

When she once again made eye contact with Alex’s terrified eyes, she tried to soften her tone as she explained, “Look I’m really sorry, but no one is allowed to go in there if they’re wearing a cross. Hell even the cops have to have special permission to do so and be on official police business with warrants and everything to keep theirs. I’m sorry, but rules are rules.”

“But can’t you make an exception? Just this once? Just for me since I don’t have any faith to back it up in order to make it a weapon? Please?” Alex’s voice broke when she said the last ‘please’ and then tears slowly spilled out of her eyes to trail down both of her cheeks.

“Look. I’m really sorry, truly I am, but giving out permission like that is way above my pay grade and even if…”

“Permission for what Alice?”

Both women quickly turned their attention to the ebony haired vampire that had rejoined them without either of them noticing. As Jean-Claude stepped closer he could see the tears that were trailing down Alex’s cheeks prompting him to ask in a very concerned tone, “ _Ma gamine_ what has happened? Who or what has brought you to tears?”

Feeling too embarrassed by her emotional display to answer, Alex just shook her head as she took a step back and away from them. Jean-Claude then turned his attention to the human standing beside him and simply asked, “Alice?”

She shrugged and replied, “She says that she needs to speak to someone in the club, but I told her that she can’t.”

“And why would you tell her that?” Jean-Claude inquired sounding like he was on the verge of getting infuriated.

Alice held her hands us in a sign of surrender as she replied, “Hey, you’re the one who made the rules, I’m just the low woman on the totem pole that’s trying to enforce them.” Jean-Claude looked a question at her, so Alice pointed at Alex and added, “She’s wearing a cross pendant and refuses to take it off. Your rule is that no one is allowed past those doors wearing a cross or any other object that denotes faith in a religion. Now I get that she says that she doesn’t believe in God at all, but I don’t recall there being an exception to the rule for that at all, so I…”

The vampire silenced her by raising his hand and waving it back and forth a couple of times. “Thank you Alice, I believe that I have a better understanding of the situation now.” He then turned his attention to the despondent werewolf and in a very gentle tone addressed her saying, “ _Ma gamine_ is what she has said the truth? Are you wearing a cross around your neck?”

Alex nodded her head a little too quickly to allow her to get a handle on her emotions and still refused to look up at him. He then noticed that she was in fact gripping a pendant so tightly in her right hand that her knuckles were turning white. He smirked slightly and silently laughed to himself because he hadn’t even noticed that Alex had been wearing a necklace, let alone one with a cross on it and he couldn’t help but wonder why. If she was a vampire he would have assumed that it was because of some kind of mind trick or illusion, but she wasn’t one so he knew it had to be something else.

He approached her very slowly in order to keep from spooking her and kept his voice whisper soft asking, “ _Ma gamine_ …?”

“I promise I’ll keep it tucked into my dress like I have all night Jean-Claude,” she interrupted him with a frantic look in her eye. She kept her gaze locked on his and continued to tearfully plead, “Please? I… I never take it off and I have NEVER hurt anyone with it. Like I told her… I don’t even believe in God, so I it isn’t even like I could hurt anyone since I have no faith to back it up, right? Right? Please, Jean-Claude, please!”

Jean-Claude shushed her with a finger pressed to his lips while gently petting the side of her head with the other. He was smiling to himself at her having answered his question about how he hadn’t noticed her jewelry before now. His hope was that the gentle look in his eye along with his tender touch would help to soothe her, but Alex still looked jumpy and completely terrified, so he tried to use his voice in order to accomplish his latest goal. If that didn’t work then he had resigned himself to the fact that he might have to use some of his own personal ‘magic’ to help calm her down and get her to return to the Alex he had been working with all evening.

“No one is accusing you of wanting to harm anyone _ma gamine_ , but Alice is quite right when she says that exceptions to the rule are very, very rare.” He continued to stroke the side of her head down her neck to her shoulder and she seemed to have calmed down enough that he would be able to ask her questions without terrifying her any further. “And Alexandria, you say that you NEVER take off your necklace and yet this is the first time that I have ever seen it. I don’t recall seeing it with your belongings while you were being healed by your pack members or our local pard.”

“Oh…” Alex answered looking withdrawn and still very distraught. She then took a step back and away from Jean-Claude and looked like she was trying to finder her confidence once again as she said, “You’re right about that Master…” Jean-Claude cringed slightly at her using his title once again. While they had been looking at real estate he had finally broken her of the habit because he now knew that she only called him that was when she was nervous. “It’s true, I wasn’t wearing it when I first arrived here in St. Louis… It’s the last thing I own… that I still carry with me from… from my other life and when I decided to hitch-hike here I was worried that since it looks valuable that whomever gave me a ride would want to take it as payment.” She paused and made eye contact with Jean-Claude for the first time since she had started talking. Although she once again had tears falling from her eyes she managed to give him a wry smile as she added, “And given how that turned out, I have to admit that I’m glad that I hid it in my luggage with my dirty underwear up until now.”

Jean-Claude smiled faintly as he replied, “Yes that was very wise planning on your part. May I enquire as to when you commenced wearing it again? Especially since I have no recollection of seeing it at all this evening or before _ma gamine_?”

Alex let out a loud sigh at hearing him use her nickname once again. She had quickly learned that there were was only a few people for whom their Master preferred to use a nickname and only used their full name to illustrate a point, usually when he was angry or annoyed with them. Somehow she became one of the people that fell into that category and she was loathed to fall out of favor with him and have him use her given name on a regular basis.

“I started wearing it again after my breakdown… err… umm… the one with Richard there that is…” She shared a self-deprecating smile with the vampire in response to her attempt at humor. “When I was down in Tennessee, he and I talked a lot about our families and seeing him again reminded me that I really had been missing feeling connected to that part of my old life.”

She touched her pendant again, but this time it was with more love and tenderness than with the frantic protectiveness she had displayed previously. She tried once again to plead her case with her eyes and Jean-Claude found himself not wanting to say no to her.

“Alright _ma gamine_ , I very rarely allow this, but if you promise me that no one will see it and that you will keep it completely hidden at all costs…” He sighed audibly and tried his best to look completely put out as he added, “Then yes, you may keep your necklace on.”

“Really?” She asked with the eagerness that most people would have associated with a child receiving good news or a coveted toy on Christmas Day.

Jean-Claude gave her a soft smile as he confirmed saying, “Really.”

Suddenly Alex shot out of her spot and before even Jean-Claude could react she had her arms wrapped around his torso with her face pressed into the lace of his shirt on his chest. “Thank you Jean-Claude! I promise no one will see it and no one will know you let me break the rules.”

He pet the back of her head replying, “ _Bon… bon…_ ”

They both seemed content to have Jean-Claude just hold Alex in a tender embrace until they heard someone try to clear their throat quietly. Alex let Jean-Claude move her so that he could confront whomever interrupted them without uttering a word or trying to get a look at them.

“Sorry, but I thought that this might be of help,” Alex explained meekly.

Alex finally looked up and couldn’t help but feel confused when she saw that Alice was holding out a rather large rectangular shaped bandage. The human chuckled softly and started opening it as she explained, “I have a girlfriend who’s a devote Catholic and she too rarely removes her crucifix, but that became an issue when her fiancé became a vampire. These became her best friend so that she wouldn’t maim him every time he tried to hug her.” Alex just stood frozen and mute in her spot as Alice worked at repositioning the delicate cross to a spot where neither it nor the chain would be easily seen and covered it up with the bandage. “So she got to keep Christ close to her heart and he got to keep from having blisters all over his body and now they are happily married and still figuring things out.”

Alice shifted Alex’s dress and her blazer into place before she mussed the werewolf’s hair slightly over her shoulders. She then took a step back to inspect the woman standing in front of her. After a couple of breaths she smiled up at Jean-Claude who was standing to her right, feeling very pleased with her handiwork.

“Very well done Alice. Thank you for your assistance…” He paused to make very direct eye contact with her. “And your discretion with this ruse.”

Alice mimed zippering her mouth closed and then locking it with a key. As she passed the imaginary key to Jean-Claude she said, “Mom’s the word.”

“ _Bon. Merci encore_ Alice,” Jean-Claude replied.

Alice then returned to her booth and Jean-Claude took a step towards the awaiting werewolf. He presented her with a ben elbow that she very tentatively slipped her hand onto his arm. Once her arm was wrapped snuggly around his own, Jean-Claude pat her hand encouragingly and moved towards the door to the performance area.

Alex remained still as a statue in her spot causing Jean-Claude to pause and look back at her. Before he could breathe a word of concern Alex whispered, “Thank you Jean-Claude. You don’t know how grateful I truly am.” Her hand quickly found a place over the bandage under her clothing before she added, “And I don’t mean just for this. Tonight… it’s… I almost want to pinch myself because I never actually thought this would be my life again. Everything… and everyone… it’s all so much more amazing than I could have ever imagined it could be and I know that I owe most of it being so to you. You are the most kind and generous Master of the City that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and I am eternally grateful that you’ve not only allowed me to stay in St. Louis, but have helped to make my dreams come true as well.”

By the time she was finished her mini-speech, Alex had begun to blush and once again looked like she had lost some of her confidence. Jean-Claude felt genuinely touched by her words and sentiments and almost didn’t know how to respond. At first they just stared at each other and then he raised her free hand to his lips to place a soft kiss on the back of it.

“ _C’est mon plaisir ma gamine_ ,” Jean-Claude answered with a warm smile. “Now why don’t we continue on with our night before it get to be too late… or early as the case may be?” Alex opened her mouth to apologize because she was realizing how her hysterics had delayed them so much, but Jean-Claude silenced her by squeezing her arm that was still tangled with his own. “You needed to let that out and I am honored that you entrusted me with that information. Now let’s leave that all in the past and move on into your future.”

Alex caught a playful glint in Jean-Claude’s eye as he reached for the door. She tried to pull back, but Jean-Claude wouldn’t allow it this time and used his own preternatural strength to force her to follow him.

Once inside Alex was struck by how normal everything inside looked. There was a large stage at the front of the room with a crowd of women standing about five people deep in front of it. The rest of the floor was covered in tables where other spectators chose to sit and watch the show. Waitresses wove their way through the tables, rushing to and from the bar to patrons who were awaiting their drinks wile a smattering of security guards stood watch around the room to make sure that no one was getting out of line.

As Alex took it all in she initially thought that she was at any club in the country where a band was playing but then her eyes moved to the stage. Suddenly she became hyper aware that the only males in the room were staff. Although the music had a good rock beat, it was being supplied by a cd instead of a live band.

And speaking of the entertainment on the stage, Alex nearly lost the ability to breathe when her eyes landed on a blond haired, blue eyed, finely muscled male that was dancing on the stage. Although the word ‘dancing’ didn’t quite feel adequate enough to describe how he moved to the beat. His muscles almost looked like liquid because they moved so fluidly while he discarded his shorts towards the back of the stage. Alex must have blinked because suddenly he was crawling across the stage towards hands that were waving money in his direction. As he slithered his way towards them, Alex almost thought that he was completely nude because his G-string couldn’t’ be easily seen until it was used to hold all of the tips the ladies had slipped under the elastic.

“Oh my…” Alex breathed out. “Jason?”

He stood up and started to perform some acrobatic dance moves up until the moment that the music stopped. The instant the music was silenced, the lights on the stage went out and the crowd seemed to take a collective breath before it erupted into loud cheers and applause.

“Encore! Encore! Ripley! Come out for an encore Ripley!” So many voices shouted out that it sounded like one loud roar.

Jean-Claude pressed Alex closely into his side and started moving towards the stage while keeping to one side of the room. Overhead a recording of his voice thanked everyone for attending and expressed his hopes that they had enjoyed the show. Alex wasn’t able to actually hear him wish everyone safe travels home or to extend his invitation for them to return and delight in the pleasures that were to be had at the club in the near future because her mind was still reeling about seeing Jason on stage. Well more than that, of seeing Jason stripping until he was practically naked in front of a room full of strangers while he was on stage. Once she got over the initial shock of all of that she would take some time to marvel at the true beauty and grace of his movements while performing, but for now her mind remained stuck on the fact that she had just watched her first male stripper perform and he was the man that she was sort of, maybe… dating.

Jean-Claude whished Alex through a door beside the stage marked “Employees Only” and continued down a corridor that was so quiet it was shocking to the system after the mayhem they had left in the club.

“ _Ma gamine, je suis tellement désolé._ I must apologize, I knew that he was going to perform one of his shorter routines to help make up for Nathaniel’s absence, but I had not realized that we would only be permitted to see the very end of his show.”

Alex gaped at Jean-Claude for a couple of seconds before replying, “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for Jean-Claude. I’m not sure that my heart… or my knees for that matter could have handled much more than what I just saw… Really it’s okay.”

“I make you feel weak in the knees? My how you flatter me so Alex.”

She turned fully around to face the voice of her favorite werewolf that had just been teasing her. When she turned to face the other end of the hallway, her arm slipped out of Jean-Claude’s grasp and he was more than willing to let her go because of the smiles that he had witnessed on both of the werewolves faces. He wanted nothing more than for everyone in his care to be genuinely happy and seeing the two of them together was the best proof available to demonstrate that they had the ability to bring some measure of joy into each other’s lives.

Alex had barely finished turning to face Jason before she started sprinting down the hallway towards him as she shouted out in excitement, “Jason!”

He almost didn’t have a chance to ground himself before she leapt into his arms and wrapped her arms and legs around his neck and waist respectively. He had been in the middle of tying up his robe, so it gaped open when Alex worked to wrap herself around his body. Alex didn’t notice that at all and seemed quite content to squeeze her arms around his neck to hug him uncomfortably tight.

“Okay, so not so weak in the knees,” Jason observed with a groan and a quick laugh while Alex burrowed her nose into the hair at the back of his neck.

Alex took in a long, deep breath, held it for a couple of seconds and then let out a loud sigh of relief. As she pulled her head back to look at his face, she paused to place a quick peck against the side of his neck. For the most part Jason tried to remain as still as possible because his hold on the other werewolf was precarious at best and he didn’t want to drop her. He did however jump slightly at the unexpected contact of her lips on the flesh of his neck.

When he opened his eyes, Jason started slightly when he looked into Alex’s honey brown eyes, mostly because he didn’t actually remember closing his eyes. Her eyes twinkled with pleasure even though the majority of the makeup she had put on that evening had been washed away by her tears and her skin now looked somewhat blotchy as well. He started to scowl but couldn’t get his face to comply fully with his brain because Alex was smiling so broadly that he found that he couldn’t help but to mirror her expression, albeit to a much lesser degree since he was confused about her smiling so brightly when it looked like she had just recently been crying.

“We found it!” She exclaimed excitedly, almost bouncing in his arms.

This time his facial muscles did knit into a scowl as he asked, “Found it?”

She continued to smile brightly and nodded saying, “Yeah… we found a place… No that’s not right. We found THE place… the perfect spot for the restaurant. It’s AMAZING… or well it will be once all of the renovations are finally finished, but that’s not all that important just yet because we found it!”

Jason started smiling again and almost broke out into a fit of laughter at her enthusiasm. “You found it.”

“WE found it. Jean-Claude hired Gloria, who picked out a bunch of places based on the parameters Jean-Claude and I gave her, so it wasn’t just me. It was a group effort.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that reply because Alex always seemed to do that. She would instantly deflect practically any and all compliments people attempted to give her. All except for praise about her cooking, but even then she was quick to point out anyone that had been helping her in the kitchen and insisted that their efforts be recognized as well. Jason wasn’t sure if this was a new trait since she had been made a werewolf and had had a number of other werewolves convince her that she was inferior to them in every way imaginable or if it was an old trait that she had inherited from her youth that carried over into her life as a lycanthrope. He made a quick mental note then to ask Nathaniel what he thoughts were on that subject since his best friend seemed to know the most about Alex Hughes’ life prior to her becoming a werewolf.

“I misspoke then… What I meant to say was the YOU ALL found it. Congratulations Alex,” he replied with a sly smile. “I can’t wait to see it.”

“Me either. Well to see it once all of the work is done which is a pretty long way off… but it still looks like it’s going to be pretty awesome and pretty damn close to perfect.”

Jason smiled warmly but before he could say anything further on the topic, they heard an amused voice with a thick British accent cheerfully call out, “You’re going to the rest of us to shame Old Chum, what with having a gorgeous Bird such as her leaping into your arms to greet you and all.”

A dark bright pink blush spread across Alex’s cheeks and neck causing the new-comer to add in a very contrite tone, “oh don’t be embarrassed Luv. Any of us would gladly greet a beautiful woman such as yourself with open arms any time she wanted to give us such an enthusiastic welcome.” He took a couple of steps towards them, tying the sash around the waist of his black silk robe tightly. Once he was beside the duo, he gently picked up Alex’s right hand from Jason’s shoulder to place a soft kiss on the back of it. “Alas not all of us are so blessed or lucky and can only envy those who are while we watch.”

Alex listened to him with a look that was a mixture of sadness and chagrin and almost tried to wriggle out of Jason’s arms to try to alleviate any pain she might be causing any of their spectators. The only reason she couldn’t get out of Jason’s hold was that he had tightened his embrace around her the moment that he felt her start to squirm. She turned to face him with eyes that were bleeding into a golden fire, but he didn’t relent and just smiled at disarmingly at her and chuckle at her mounting anger.

“Alex that’s just Byron being Byron. You shouldn’t take him so seriously,” Jason finally explained to try to ease her frustration.

“So this is the elusive Ms. Hughes that I’ve heard so much about from our Nathaniel. It most certainly is a pleasure to finally meet you, Luv.”

Alex swallowed thickly while watching the vampire kiss her hand again before replying, “Uhh… nice to meet you too… Byron.”

Byron opened his mouth again to speak, but he never got to utter another syllable because Jean-Claude interrupted them all saying, “Now there is still much to be discussed and the night is quickly fading…”

He let his statement trail off, but everyone caught onto his meaning quickly. All of the dancers and bodyguards that had found themselves in the hallway to investigate the cheerful and exuberant exclamation of their manager’s name quickly dispersed with only a couple of bodyguards remaining behind to take up positions to protect the Master of the City.

When it was just the three of them in the hallway (for all intents and purposes), Jean-Claude said, “Jason we truly only have a couple of small matters to discuss, so there is no need for us to delay.”

Jason shifted Alex in his arms so that his hold on her was more comfortable and he could see his Master more easily. “Yeah sure Jean-Claude sounds good to me. What’s up?”

“First, I understand that Nathaniel had to leave to assist Anita with some issue tonight?”

“Well more like he headed out to help Anita with a Vivian shaped issue that is.”

“Ah, I see. Well that explanation answers the rest of the questions that I had for that topic. Now, next questions. Was Nathaniel meant to be spot-lighted tonight and is there anything that needs to be done to make amends with anyone who is disappointed by his absence this evening?”

Jason gave Jean-Claude a big, toothy grin replying, “No he wasn’t a star for tonight’s performances, but emails have been sent out to all of ‘Brandon’s’ fan club members to apologize for the unforeseen rescheduling of tonight’s performance. They’ve also been informed that he has finished preparations on a new routine and they are being given an invitation for an advanced screening. For those who are not able to attend that event, personalized autographed photos will be sent out automatically. Nathaniel already has a bunch of photos signed, so I’ll help with the personalizations to make sure they get out as quickly as possible.”

Jean-Claude remained perfectly still and silent for a couple of uncomfortable moments while he processed everything he was just told. Jason watched their Master with a wary eye and nearly spoke up to apologize. He couldn’t quite get a good read on how Jean-Claude was receiving the new he had just relayed, not that there was anything new or Earth shattering about that revelation, and soon began to worry that he may have done or said the wrong thing. Worse yet, he worried that he had dealt with the situation in a manner that was not becoming of a JC Corporation enterprise and Jean-Claude was silently contemplating how he would be disciplined.

Feeling the change in the atmosphere between the two men, Alex dropped her legs to the ground and once again started to extract herself from Jason’s embrace. This time he allowed her to do so somewhat, although with great reluctance to let her leave his arms completely. With her arms still wrapped around his neck and his now encircling her waist, Jason and Alex found themselves staring into each other’s eyes and ignoring the vampire.

For a brief moment it was as if no one else in the hallway existed except for the two of them. Jean-Claude normally would have been content to leave the two of them alone to enjoy the rest of their night, but first he wanted to finish his conversation with the manager of this club.

He cleared his throat quietly which caused both of the werewolves to jump and turn startled eyes in his direction. He smiled at the fact that neither of them released their hold on the other when they turned to face him.

“ _C’est très bien ma pomme,_ very well done indeed. I do believe that will be more than adequate recompense to his faithful fans for his disappointing them this evening,” Jean-Claude praised. “Well since everything seems to be taken care of and very well in hand at that, I shall leave you to it and complete the rest of my rounds to check in with everyone.” He could see that Alex was about to let go of Jason to follow him, so he held up a hand to halt her adding, “It’s alright _ma gamine_ , I brought you here to fill Jason in on your… _je m’excuse_ , apologies OUR good news so please do not let my departure cut that short.”

Alex just nodded in response, not quite sure what she could say or if she could actually form words right now. Jason pulled her in closer to his body replying, “Thanks Jean-Claude, I’m happy that you approve of what I did.” He then turned to Alex and added, “And I can’t wait to hear all about this great location that you guys have found.”

Jean-Claude couldn’t help but smile and feel a well of contentment pass through him at seeing the genuine affection in Jason’s tone. As his _pomme de sang_ Jean-Claude took Jason’s well-being, emotionally and physically, very seriously. However as much as he wanted to tend to all of Jason’s needs, he had to be honest and realistic and admit that there were some voids that he could not fill and some needs that he could not meet for his blue-eyed werewolf. Although he would never push a relationship onto the young lycanthrope, he was ecstatic none-the-less that he had been able to find someone that appeared to possess the ability to love and cherish Jason in the manner with which he deserved.

“ _Bonne nuit à vous deux_. I shall see you both back at the Circus.” With a graceful wave, Jean-Claude turned and made his way down the corridor with two bodyguards trailing close behind him. As soon as those two wererats moved to guard the Master of the City, two more lycanthrope guards appeared in the hallway. Suddenly all of the good cheer and sense of celebration withdrew from Alex’s whole being and shew as left feeling incredibly awkward and out of place in Jason’s arms.

Before she could attempt to wriggle out of his hold, Jason squeezed his arms around her waist saying, “Don’t do that Alex, please? If you have questions you know that you can just ask… any of us, anytime, but please don’t just shut down on me, please? Especially not after you were so excited about the restaurant and all… please?”

Alex slumped slightly in his arms and her cheeks once again turned a familiar dark pink color under a hot blush. She quickly checked behind Jason and then herself to make sure that the bodyguards didn’t look like they were listening in on their conversation (even though she already knew that with them being wereanimals they would be able to hear every word spoken by anyone in the hallway or even a close by room) and then leaned in to and said just barely loud enough for Jason to hear, “I was wondering… how much for a private dance _mon beau loup garou_?”

Jason stood rigidly still in his place for a couple of breaths, completely shocked by her forwardness. Alex quirked a single eyebrow looking defiant while attempting to be playful causing Jason to lean in towards her and press his lips to her ear to reply, “Why don’t you step into my office and we can negotiate a price?”

 


	9. Chapter 9

Jason continued to dress while Alex chattered on excitedly about the building they had found and purchased for their restaurant. He barely registered half of what she was saying, but he couldn’t help but smile every time he caught a glimpse of her in the reflection of his mirror. The woman that was talking to him now was a far cry from the timid broken werewolf that he and his friend had found half dead in an alley just under two weeks ago. He found her new confidence absolutely alluring and was trying to think to himself what else everyone in Jean-Claude’s care, himself in particular, could do in order to help her maintain or even increase this level of confidence that she was currently displaying.

“So what do you think?” Alex asked, eyes wide and face completely open, making her appear to be more vulnerable than he knew that she truly was.

Jason found her in the mirror’s reflection again and suddenly realized that he hadn’t heard a single word that she had said before asking that question. He looked down at his hands that were frozen in the middle of fastening a button on his shirt and he realized his thoughts had paralyzed him long before her question had pierced through them.

He quickly finished fastening the last couple of buttons on his shirt before he turned around and gave Alex his best ‘wounded puppy-dog’ look. It only took a breath for Alex to misinterpret the look on Jason’s face. Thinking that he disliked or even worse disapproved of her latest idea, Alex’s smile vanished from her face and tears crept up into the corner of her eyes. Her whole body slumped in her spot as she started to retreat back into the woman Jason had initially met instead of the woman she was becoming just moments earlier.

“Oh… oh… okay,” she replied just over a whisper.

“Alex no!” Jason nearly shouted in his haste to cut-off her negative train of thought. “It isn’t what you think. I… I… I didn’t hear what you were asking me about, so I was worried you would be upset with me for zoning out on you.”

“Zoning…?” Jason was now standing in front of her holding both of her hands, so she looked up at him as she asked skeptically, “What were you thinking about so hard that you couldn’t hear me?”

Jason ran the fingers of his left hand through her hair and tucked it behind her ear answering huskily, “You.”

“Me?” She asked raising a questioning brow.

“Yes, you. I was thinking about how much has changed since we first met and how excited you are now that you’re getting some of your old life back.” He paused there and forced himself to look more demure then he felt. “And I was thinking about all the things I want to do with you in order to keep these great changes from stopping.”

Alex blushed when Jason waggled his eyebrows playfully at her because she was quickly becoming familiar with what that action signified. She both loved and hated it when Jason would do that. She loved it, secretly and would never tell him so because it usually meant his thoughts were of doing something provocative and sexual with her. It was for those same reasons that she not so secretly hated it as well because Jason was aware of how knowing he was thinking of her sexually embarrassed her and he waggled his eyebrows like that purely just to tease a dark red blush out of her.

“Oh,” she finally muttered as the only reply her brain could come up with at the time.

A cheeky grin quickly spread across Jason’s face before he leaned in to gently brush his cheek against hers. “Does that mean that you forgive me and won’t mind repeating what you had said before your last question?”

Alex nuzzled her face in against the side of Jason’s and then pressed her nose in behind his ear. He shivered at the sensation of her breaths ghosting over the skin of his neck, but she didn’t seem to notice because she didn’t appear to be in any hurry to move from their current position. As Alex settled into her position, with her nose still buried behind Jason’s ear so that she would inhale his scent with every breath, he felt his arms start to snake around her waist to hug her against his torso.

Alex exhaled a long breath and let herself relax even further against the other werewolf when she felt him hug her tightly. She then moved her arms around his waist as well and turned her head so that her cheek was resting against his shoulder as she settled her whole body more comfortably in his embrace.

6Since is isn’t all that far away from here, I thought maybe we could stop by there before going to the Circus. What do you think?”

Jason squeezed Alex in his arms and replied, “I can’t think of anywhere else I would rather be.”

Alex leaned back and flashed Jason a brilliant smile before she leaned in and captured his lips in an enthusiastic yet gentle kiss. Jason’s lips remained frozen under her embrace for a few seconds due to his feelings of surprise at her initiating such intimate contact between them. The only other time that she had done a thing (prior to the incident in the hallway) she had been reluctant about sharing such intimacies with him and for a fraction of a second he thought that she might regret kissing him now. But Jason never was one to pass up on the opportunity to kiss a beautiful woman, so before Alex had a chance to notice his hesitation, Jason was moving his hands up to her head so that he could deep their embrace.

When she felt Jason’s tongue brush against her own, Alex let out an involuntary moan of contentment and she relaxed further under his hands. She then let him take control and found it hard to keep up with him while in such a euphoric state. She still wasn’t completely certain what the future would hold for her, but once she and Jean-Claude signed the paperwork to purchase real estate, Alex finally allowed herself to let worrying about much of what could happen in her future go. (Jean-Claude had been insistent that Alex’s name be on the purchasing contract and Alex couldn’t bring herself to argue with him.) St. Louis was going to be her home base for the foreseeable future so she could finally allow herself to believe that Jason was going to be an active participant in her life so she wanted to start to show him that that was what she wanted for her life.

They maintained their passionate embrace until Alex had to lean back and gently pushed back on Jason’s torso so that she could catch her breath. He panted in a few breaths to question her, but he was silenced when he heard her breathy voice.

“Wow… you are… wow…”

She looked up at Jason’s now smile face through a veil of her hair while she continued to try to steady her breathing. Jason once again used his fingers as a comb and brushed her hair back behind her ear so that he could see her face without any obstruction. His eyes soon became locked on Alex’s and he couldn’t help but let himself get lost in them. They had bled into a color that he would describe as molten gold that he had never seen before and could help but wonder what it meant since he knew that dark amber was the color to look out for when her beast was trying to surface.

His silent question seemed to be answered when Alex quickly sat up straighter so that she could press her lips against his once again. This time Alex took full control of their kiss by holding Jason’s head still between her two hands. Her tongue plunged into his mouth and tangled itself with his. They both let out a moan when Jason ground his hip bone between Alex’s open legs. When he did it again, Alex instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist so that she could move her body to allow Jason’s hip to hit her where she wanted to feel him the most. As her tongue continued to brush against his wither a faster pace, Jason shifted his stance so that his thigh easily slipped under her dress.

When his jean clad thigh brushed against the growing spot of moisture on her panties, Alex released Jason’s lips so that she could let out a loud gasp. She let her hands slide down to his neck where she laced her fingers loosely behind it so that she could stare into his eyes. Both of them got so lost in their rocking motions that they couldn’t find their voices to speak.

Eventually Alex did close her eyes as her head slumped forward and her forehead connected with Jason’s left shoulder. Her breathing became ragged and their movements became more and more frantic until Alex froze completely in her spot. When she stopped moving, Jason’s own movements slowed down as well until he too had to stop reluctantly.

Just as he was about to question Alex if she was alright or not, Jason felt Alex’s nails dig into the flesh on either side of the base of his neck. He let out a quiet whimper of pain that was soon drowned out by Alex crying out softly in ecstasy. When he realized that he had caused her to reach orgasm, the pain that he was still feeling in the tender flesh of his neck was quickly forgotten.

When Alex finished with a long, soft sigh, she then slumped in her place again and let her forehead fall against Jason’s shoulder. He then slowly moved his leg out from under the skirt of her dress causing Alex to shudder violently in her spot when his knee inadvertently brushed against her most intimate part that were now over sensitive to touch of any kind.

He let out a breathy laugh while she sighed loudly once again with her cheek now pressed to his shoulder.

“And again I say ‘wow’!” She finally whispered.

The sensation of her breath sweeping over the broken skin of his neck coaxed an involuntary shudder out of Jason’s body. This time they both let out a breathy laugh before Alex sat up straight so that she could look into Jason’s face more easily.

Before her eyes me his, they traveled up his body starting at his knees. They then moved slowly upwards and lingered on his midsection for longer than would probably be considered polite. The jeans he was wearing were dark enough of a black wash that it hid any evidence of what they had just done, but that didn’t stop Alex’s cheeks from rouging when her eyes finally met Jason’s sky-blue gaze. Knowing what was on her mind, Jason waggled his eyebrows causing Alex’s cheeks to turn an even deeper shade of pink.

“Stop that,” she reprimanded him with a very soft slap on his chest with her left hand. He just laughed at the lack of heat in her tone and leaned in to try to kiss her. Alex immediately halted him by pressing both of her palms against his pectoral muscles. Jason gave her a questioning look to which she replied, “Did you…? Do you…? Umm… Is there something that you need to take care of now?”

While getting her question out, Alex’s arms unconsciously turned into limp noodles which allowed Jason to lean forward and place a soft kiss on her forehead. Alex’s hands then balled up Jason’s shirt into her fists to help her remain somewhat upright while Jason kept his lips pressed gently against the skin of her forehead.

“I went just after you finished…” He leaned back to flash her a wicked grin. Alex didn’t have to hear anything else from him to cause her to blush any deeper because the look on his face was enough for her to let her full embarrassment show. “Come here, it’ll be fine once we clean up.”

After Jason changed into a fresh pair of jeans and underwear and Alex into a fresh pair of panties, they left the club hand in hand en route to the location of her new restaurant. When Jason pulled out the black lacy under garments, Alex had just stared at him in a stunned silence. Initially she had refused to take them from him because she had assumed that they had been a ‘memento’ thrown on stage by one of ‘Ripley’s’ overzealous fans. Jason was quick to explain that Jean-Claude had bought a small stockpile of panties for more than one of his establishments after Anita had a couple of mishaps where for one reason or another their Lupa’s own undergarments had been rendered unwearable.

She was tempted to ask Jason about what had happened, but quickly decided against it. For one thing, she didn’t want to give him any other ammunition to tease her relentlessly to make her blush. For another she still felt like she was too new to their pack to be privy to so many intimate details about their Lupa. She also was aware that the night wasn’t getting any younger and she really wanted to have some time to show Jason the new building and have some time to explain to him the changes she wanted to make during their tour.

Since they had exited out the back door of ‘Guilty Pleasures’ in the hopes of avoiding any of ‘Ripley’s’ fans, they ended up walking through the alley to get to the restaurant. In the back of her mind Alex knew that it was somewhere along this same path that she had been dumped for Jason to find her battered and broken. She very nearly asked him to point out the spot when she hadn’t been able to sense it for herself, but once again she stopped herself from voicing her question because she wasn’t ready to deal with having that knowledge and she didn’t want to ruin their good moods. Right now they were both feeling light-hearted and optimistic, so Alex saw no reason to rain on their parade or to give Jason any reasons for concern.

Since Jason didn’t know where the restaurant was, he continued walking even though Alex had stopped. When his arm got jerked back softly he stopped and turned to ask Alex if something was wrong. His question was quickly forgotten when he saw a set of keys dangling from the fist of her free hand.

“We’re here,” she announced unnecessarily.

Jason let go of her hand so that she could unlock the door more easily. He couldn’t help but smile because he could feel a slight press of Alex’s power again his own which told him that she was nervous. He was fairly confident that the reason she was feeling so nervous was that she was worried that he wasn’t going to like the place. In all honesty he really didn’t care what it was like because it had made her so happy to have found it and that was all that mattered to him. He also knew that he was a good enough liar to convince her he loved the place even if he didn’t, which again he didn’t foresee happening. Just before she opened the door, Jason placed his hand over hers to stop her. Alex slowly turned to face him while her power pulsed once again. Jason pulled her into a hug and ran his hands up and down her back until he felt her power recede enough that he knew he had been able to calm her down somewhat.

With her still safely wrapped in his arms Jason said into her hair, “Don’t be nervous Alex. You love the place which makes me love it too.”

Alex laughed softly into his chest and then pushed out of his embrace just enough that she could see his face to say, “No one told me that mind reading was a psychic trait for shapeshifters.”

Jason laughed, kissed her gently and then teasingly replied, “Some of us are just more gifted than others.”

Alex just shook her head and gave his torso a quick squeeze. Jason no longer felt the push of her power, so he let himself relax as well. H still couldn’t believe the deep connection he shared with this werewolf because they truly hadn’t known each other all that long. When he had voiced those concerns to Nathaniel, his best friend head been quick to dismiss them. In the wereleopard’s opinion it made total sense that the two wolves would mesh so well and so quickly because that’s what’s supposed to happen when you meet the person with whom you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life. He had felt that way about Anita and Micah, although back then Nathaniel hadn’t known how to express that sentiment as easily or as healthy as he could since seeking professional help.

The back door opened into a small room that had only one other exit, a hallway that led deeper into the building. The room looked large enough that they could use if for storage. Alex quickly explained that they were going to put up hooks and coat racks so that the staff could hang jackets and outer garments up there upon entry, especially on days when it was raining.

“But there will also be a proper locker type room too, so that they can be sure that their valuables are safe and all,” he hurriedly added sounding anxious once again. “This will be more like a… umm… oh shit, what did she call it again?”

Jason’s lips pulled back into a soft smile while he watched her wrestle with her memory as he asked, “Do you mean like a ‘mud room’?”

Her eyes lit up and she actually clapped her hands, “Yes that’s it exactly! Apparently it’ll help cut down on cleaning or something. I don’t know or really care, but I do know that I like getting out of a wet jacket first thing when I get anywhere so it makes sense to me. But enough about that, come on!”

Alex took Jason by the hand once again and pulled him down the hall. The next room they encountered was the employee locker room. There wasn’t much to it, so Alex explained to him how they had talked about knocking out a wall to connect it directly to the ‘mud room’ via a small store room that Jason hadn’t noticed at all. That way with the locker room enlarged they could also set up a small employee lounge as well.

“Once we get a designer in we’ll look into what we can have in the lounge. But at the very least there will be a couple of nice, big comfy couches and a T.V.,” Alex explained. Plus we might knock out a wall on the other side too in order to give us more room to play with and all.”

Jason turned in a full circle in the already fairly large room then asked, “But if you take out a store room on either side of this room then are you sure that you’re leaving yourself enough room for you know…? Storage?”

Alex smiled so brightly that her eyes twinkled before she answered, “Jason this isn’t even a third of it… and by that I mean the kitchen and background area. Whoever owned this place before made sure they had storage, but it’s almost like they stored everything separately or something. I don’t know I think I heard Gloria say something about wasted space a few times, but whatever, let’s keep moving.”

Next came the staff washrooms on the opposite side of the hall. Alex knew that at the Circus of the Damned and other places that Jean-Claude owned there were communal showers, but she wanted to make sure that they were separate here. Each of the rooms were in good repair and actually did resemble facilities you would find in a gym or public pool where there were sinks, toilets, private change rooms and private showers al in the same large area.

“We’ll do some minor renovations in each of the men’s and ladies’ rooms to make sure that all of the plumbing’s up to date, etcetera. Asher was adamant that the colors had to be updated…” Alex shrugged and turned to walk down the hall.

Jason chuckled and did a quick skip-step to catch up to her. Once they were walking side by side again Jason asked with a chuckle, “But that doesn’t really interest you, no does it?”

Alex stopped and turned to look at him. Once their eyes locked on each other’s her cheeks quickly turned a dark shade of pink. Her hands flew up to her now hot cheeks in an effort to try to hide her embarrassment while she stared at him with wide eyes for a moment.

“Oh my… Does it make me a horrible person if I say ‘yes’? I mean I wasn’t everyone to have a proper place to clean up, especially if they are being a donor, but honestly when Asher and Jean-Claude started droning on about color schemes…”

Alex suddenly silenced herself by throwing both of her hands over her mouth with a chagrinned look in her eyes.

Jason laughed again and wrapped her in a hug, “Don’t worry about it Alex. You’re the chef, so the food should be your top priority and you seem to care about your staff being comfortable, which is good too but… even though interior decorating isn’t one of your priorities, it would probably be better for you if neither Jean-Claude nor Asher hear you say that they were ‘droning on’ about color schemes.”

Alex relaxed into Jason’s embrace with a heavy sigh. “I wouldn’t dare say such a thing in front of them.” She leaned back and gave him a small smile before adding. “Thanks for making this easier on me. I just… it still feels like I’m dreaming and that I’m going to wake up any second and…”

“You’re not dreaming Alex,” Jason interrupted with gentle firmness. “Now why don’t you show me the kitchen?”

Alex’s eyes lit up brighter than a Christmas tree as she replied, “Okay!”

They made it to the kitchen area in record time and when Jason saw the size of it he let out a low whistle. Alex let go of his hand and walked towards a large island in the center of the room. She then turned around with her hands up at should height and a bright smile on her face.

“See what I mean? This place is freaking huge!” She commented with her excitement and delight evident in her tone. “There are two walk in fridges and the biggest walk in freezer that I have ever seen in my life… and they both look practically brand new. We have more prep space than I’ve had in any of my other kitchens… Oh Jason I… I seriously don’t even know what to say because it’s all just so… so…”

Jason walked up to Alex and took both of her hands in his and said, “So don’t say anything. I can see how happy and excited you are and anyone who sees you here will be able to see it too.”

Alex smiled and nodded but didn’t offer a verbal reply because she knew Jason was right. Sometimes there was nothing that could be said because the situation itself defied the English language and there were no adjectives or the proper vocabulary to describe it.

Now that she took a moment to think about it she was pretty sure that Jean-Claude and Asher had seen the excitement on her face at finding this restaurant because they had started discussing color schemes before they had finished their tour. She hadn’t said much while Gloria had showed them around because she hadn’t wanted to over-step at all. Jean-Claude and Asher however had had more questions than their realtor had been prepared to answer, but she had replied to all of them with a professional ease nonetheless. Then the group made it to the kitchen and suddenly the questions shifted from the previous owner and why they were selling to renovations and how they could make this place their own.

“So I could take you into the dining room area, but there’s really nothing much to see there,” Alex started somewhat awkwardly. “And I mean literally nothing. Whoever owned his place before us… US that still sounds weird… anyways they must have really liked their tables and chairs because they made sure to take them all with them.”

Another smile spread across Jason’s face as he walked up behind Alex and wrapped her in another hug. Alex relaxed and slumped down against Jason’s chest and hugged his arms closer against her chest. Jason then nuzzled his face behind Alex’s right ear causing her to let out a soft sigh and her whole body to shudder softly.

To suppress an ill-timed chuckle, Jason pressed a long, lingering kiss on the right side of Alex’s neck whispered, “Who really cares about the dining room anyway? Why don’t you tell me more about what you’d like to do in the kitchen?”

Alex laughed quietly because she knew that Jason didn’t really care about the kitchen any more than he did the dining room either. Very gently and carefully Alex extracted herself from Jason’s arms so that she could turn around and look at him. Initially she planned on playfully admonishing him for not being completely truthful, but then he waggled his eyebrows at her and she decided on a change of plans.

Instead of busting him on his half-truth, Alex decided to take his advice and try to do more of the things that made her happy. Jason was probably one of the best additions in her life since she had become a werewolf and he definitely did make her happy more often than not since they first met. She knew that he cared for her, but she worried that because she wasn’t used to being the forward on in her relationships that he didn’t know how strong her feelings truly were or how she actually felt. He said and did the right things, but Alex couldn’t shake the doubts that still lingered even after Jason’s numerous attempts to reassure her. He was constantly telling her that there was no reason for them to rush anything in their relationship, especially anything physical, but after the first time they had made love, Alex felt something inside her shift. Prior to becoming a werewolf she had had a very healthy sex-drive and had been known to be quite adventurous with her lovers. After her assault she had recoiled into herself and hadn’t wanted to be around anyone for any reason, let alone romance. Then she met Richard and Marianne in Tennessee. After spending time with them she finally started to let herself believe that she could start to trust people. But more than that the time spent with the two of them helped her to recognize that part of the pain she was feeling was actually loneliness and an ignored desire to have friends and confidants like all of the people she had left behind in Seattle.

She still didn’t feel ready to reach out to any of her friends in the Pacific Northwest, even though she considered them to be more like family than anything else because she was still afraid that if she did someone from her first pack would catch wind of it. She had already confided this fear to her new Ulfric so Richard had promised her that he would do everything he could to keep that from happening. So far everyone she had met at the Lupanar of the Thronnos Rokke clan had seemed to be understanding of her unease and did whatever they could to reassure her that she was safe. Everyone like the werewolf in front of her who had appeared to have made it his own personal mission to make her happy and to help her work through her frustrations whether it was healing (physically and emotionally) or just listening to her when she said she was convinced that they would never find a place to open the restaurant of her dreams despite her already having found a couple of wereanimals that she wanted to work in the kitchen who lived at the Circus of the Damned. He had been kind and supportive with every breakthrough he helped her achieve and Alex wanted to attempt to conquer another on this night.

The two werewolves were still standing quite closely together, so it only took Alex a step or two to close the small gap between them. Since she hadn’t changed anything but her soiled undergarments since location hunting with Jean-Claude, Jason had to tilt his head up slightly to look into Alex’s eyes while she was wearing her heels. The height difference hadn’t been notable or bothersome for Jason before now because right now he wasn’t sure what Alex was thinking or feeling so he wanted to see the color of her eyes. Alex had been surprised when he had admitted that he had been reading her emotions from the color her eyes were turning, but after the surprise wore off she had been relieved. Expressing herself through anything but her food had been somewhat of an obstacle for Alex after she was orphaned. Sure she could give her body over completely to a lover when they were in the heat of the moment, but none of those relationships had lasted because she had been burned too many times during her youth when she had given parts of her heart to someone, so she always tried to hold part of herself back once she got older. Her friends had grown used to her need to withhold part of herself and even her closest childhood friends would admit to feeling like they didn’t truly know their friends or what was in her heart beyond her love of being in the kitchen.

Jason was just about to voice his concern and need to see her full face when Alex tilted her chin down and made eye contact with him. He wasn’t sure how deliberate her pause was before she captured his lips with her own, but there was no mistaking the color of her eyes in that moment. Once again they had bled into the molten gold color they had been when the two of them were alone in his dressing room at Guilty Pleasures. Alex pressed herself closer to Jason’s body and he let out a soft chuckle into their kiss as the color’s meaning finally became abundantly clear to him.

Alex didn’t take any notice f Jason’s laughter and just continued to nearly attack his mouth with her own. This wasn’t the first time that Jason had felt Alex let her passion to nearly get out of hand, but the occasions had been rare and were usually in response to an embrace that he had initiated. Just as he had those times, Jason did his best to match her pace before placing his hands on either side of her head. Alex didn’t take note of his movement until Jason squeezed her skull ever so slightly and used his preternatural strength to move her head back just enough that he gave himself room to let his lips now dominate their kiss.

Alex did nothing to fight Jason’s actions and actually moaned into his mouth when she felt him take charge. Jason tried to make a mental note of her reaction because he was sure that he could use it to his advantage sometime in the future. Well maybe not ‘advantage’, but more like he might try to introduce some games of domination in their bedroom for their mutual pleasure. That seemed like a really good idea, however he was more than certain that his mental capacity to retain such information was going to be severely impaired by erotic bliss in the not so distant future. Or so he hoped from the look he had seen in Alex’s eyes.

As they continued to kiss and curl their tongues tighter, Alex started to slowly walk backwards. Jason was so focused on the feel of her lips and tongue against his own that he didn’t notice her movement until they were disconnected from their embrace and he felt a cool rush of air brush against his moistened lips.

He quickly opened his eyes and started to ask, “Alex what’s ---?”

“Shh,” she interrupted while placing her index finger against his lips. “I think it would be more fun to show you what I’d like to do in this kitchen instead of just telling you.”

With that said she took two large steps back and only stopped when her backside hit the island. Again Jason nearly asked if anything was wrong, but remained silent when he realized that his question was going to be answered. Alex smiled at him seductively as she braced her hands on the countertop behind her and boosted herself up onto it without breaking eye contact with Jason. She then shimmied the knee length skirt of her dress up to her waist while keeping what was hidden below her waist still cover. Jason remained transfixed in his place as he watched her hands disappear under her bunched up skirt because he almost couldn’t believe that what he was watching was real.

Alex let out a throaty laugh at the look on Jason’s face as she slowly worked her borrowed panties off her body. At the sound of her chuckle, Jason’s eyes shot up from her hands that were moving under her skirt to her face. The color of her irises hadn’t changed at all and yet she looked much more intense than she had just a few short moments earlier.

He felt his pulse rate start to quicken when one side of Alex’s lips pulled back into a sly, satisfied smirk. It had been a long while since she had felt this sexy and confident in her skin and deep down inside she knew that she owed it all to the werewolf standing in front of her. He never laughed at her attempts to be sexy even if they were clumsy and somewhat failed like so many men had in the past. He never made her feel like she was less mature than him even though they both knew that she had lived a fairly sheltered life in comparison to practically everyone in their intimate group in St. Louis. Yes she had lived through brutal losses and personal trials, but they all seemed to pale in comparison in her mind to some of the stories others had shared with her. Although she had confided in Jason and Nathaniel about some of her disastrous relationships and practically everyone had heard about her violent transition into shapshifter-hood, no one had been made privy to the one incident that caused Alex to put up a wall around her heart. Marianne had tried her best to penetrate her defenses but Alex always found a way to change the topic or evade her questions to keep the Vargamor from being able to read her inner-self completely. But now she was thinking that maybe she had the one person with whom she felt that she might trust enough to drop her defenses and show him every part of herself, including the ugly, jagged broken pieces of her soul.

“Alex?” Jason quietly asked as he placed a gentle hand on her now bare thigh.

Hearing Jason’s voice broke Alex out of her inadvertent tangent of serious thought. His eyebrows were knitted together in worry which caused a quick pang of guilt in her heart for having put that look on his face. When she had started on this course she had meant only to show Jason how she felt and uncertain about their relationship definitely wasn’t it.

 _Time to get back on track_ she thought to herself as she leaned forward and placed her hands on his cheeks to pull him into a kiss.

Before their lips could touch Jason flinched back. Alex kept her hands on his face but looked thoroughly confused by the look on Jason’s face. Although her eyes had bled back to a molten gold color, Jason still had his reservations as he said, “Alex, I’m… I’m not sure ---”

Again she silenced him with a finger to his lips saying, “Enough thinking, let’s start acting. Jason I want you… here… now…” She swallowed hard and added almost inaudibly, “Forever… if you’ll have me.”

Jason stepped forward and quietly asked, “Are you sure?”

Alex swallowed hard and nodded as she scooted back a bit towards the center of the island. Jason had been encouraged by Alex nodding, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her move further away from him. She continued to move, so Jason forced his feet to move so that he was standing directly beside the island and had an unobstructed view of where Alex was now laying down. She had her eyes closed and looked like she was trying to slow down her breathing. Jason was quite content to drink in her image, but still felt some level of concern for her because she appeared to be very anxious about something.

Almost as if she could feel Jason’s eyes on her, Alex’s eyes opened and the two werewolves locked gazes. Alex let out a soft sigh and then smiled as she worked her dress up her body to reveal her now naked lower half to Jason. She heard his sharp intact of air and chuckled softly, feeling satisfied that she had surprised him so much.

“I’m absolutely sure,” Alex finally answered as she settled in her spot with her dress now bunched up to just under her breasts. “Why don’t you join me up here?”

Jason hesitated for a second, so Alex continued working her dress up her body until it lay in a discarded pool above her head. With her arms now flat above her head, she pressed her toes towards the floor and languidly stretched her entire body on the counter top. Jason watched in a raptured awe that caused a quick shiver to run through Alex’s body in anticipation of what could happen next.

Very slowly Alex pulled her hands back down towards her body. At her head she untucked her hair that was trapped underneath of her so that it was spilling around and above her head. If Jason didn’t know any better he would say that Alex was moving her hair out of the way so that it didn’t get caught during any vigorous physical activities. Had he voiced that thought out lout, Alex would have told him that that was exactly what she was doing.

Maintaining the same deliberately slow pace, Alex moved her hands down her face to her neck and then to her bra covered breasts. Jason was still standing in his spot silently watching her so she decided to make the removal of her last remaining piece of clothing into a bit of a show. Or the best of one that she could as an awkward chef who was performing for her suave erotic dancer boyfriend. Instead of sitting up to reach the clasp of her bra, Alex just arched her back and made a bridge with her upper body so that she could work her hands underneath herself to undo her bra. Once the clasp was undone, she slowly lowered her back to the countertop while gently shifting her shoulders back and forth. Gravity soon took over and the straps of her bra slid off her shoulders and came to rest around her biceps.

Alex placed both of her hands on the cups of her bra and looked as if she was trying to keep them from falling and exposing more flesh to Jason. From where he remained stationary beside the island he let his eyes move from Alex’s toes up her body to her face at an unhurried pace. He truly just wanted to take his time to enjoy the image of Alex presenting herself to him, but once his eyes reached her face he realized that she might not understand that that was what was on his mind. Although her eye color was still that of the molten gold coloring that he now knew meant that she was lusting after him, there was a look of doubt trying to dim the heated look in her eyes. On more than one occasion Jason had reminded Alex that she didn’t have to be so insecure, but she argued that she was in fact quite self-confident and Jason quickly realized that he was fighting a losing battle. When it came to their relationship it was fairly evident that Alex would harbor at least a little bit of uncertainty, so he had decided not to acknowledge it in the hopes that one day she would lose that glimmer of pain in her eyes and trust that she was safe and protected with him in every possible way.

Tonight that manifested itself in the form of Jason working out of his shirt so quickly that he was more than a little sure that he broke off more than one button in his haste. Once his button down shirt hit the floor it was immediately joined by his undershirt. Alex started smiling the instant he raised his hands up to the top button of his shirt and she let her own hands fall away from her chest. Her bra remained in its place but she ignored that for now and kept her attention focused on the werewolf disrobing beside her.

She had tried to be as smooth and sultry as she could be with the full knowledge that she would likely fall short of the ideal, but the way that Jason was taking off his clothes almost made her laugh. Since he was a stripper by trade, Alex had expected that any time he removed his clothes that it would be with the same finesse and ease that you would see when he was on stage, but now she knew better. Right now she was acutely aware that she wasn’t watching ‘Riley’ putting on a show stripping for his fans’ pleasure, instead she was simply watching Jason getting naked as quickly as possible for his girlfriend.

Once his boxers were dropped on top of the puddle of clothing on the floor Jason started to climb onto the island. While his previous actions had nearly cause her to laugh, watching him now made Alex’s breath catch in the back of her throat. Now he looked more like the professional dancer she knew him to be because he pulled himself up onto the island and then moved up it so that they were face to face while looking like he was using muscles that no human possessed. In the back of her mind she thought to herself that he looked like a wild cat, or rather dog, that was stalking its prey without giving away any hints that would cause it to be detected. She knew that he would never intentionally cause her ham, but she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about being his prey.

Jason could see that Alex was holding her breath but he wasn’t sure if her nervous anticipation was brought on by excitement or genuine fear. Her eyes followed his movements and she didn’t attempt to meet his gaze again until he had placed a hand on either side of her head so that he could lower his face to brush his nose against hers. At that subtle touch he felt a shiver run through her body, but she still had not released the breath she was holding. He then looked her straight in the eye and lowered his lips to capture hers in a soft kiss. The instant their lips touched, Alex let out her breath with a soft sigh and closed her eyes so that she could let herself focus on the sensation of his embrace instead of the intensity of the look in his eyes.

When they both got to the point where they had to lean out of their kiss to catch their breath, Jason let Alex press the back of her head to the countertop while he panted in a couple of deep breaths to say, “I would have joined you sooner, but I was really enjoying the view.”

Alex’s smile grew wider than Jason could have imagined before she playfully teased, “If you thought the view was good, why don’t you come a bit closer and find out how much better the ‘feel’ can be?”

Her cheeks pinked slightly when her not so sensual joke hit her ears, so Jason buried his face into her neck to hide the fact that he wanted nothing more to do than to laugh. Alex seriously did not understand how sexy could be, especially when she wasn’t trying to be anyone but herself. He could feel Alex start to tense up slightly, so he moved his head back just enough so that he could kiss his way down the side of her neck.

With ever soft brush of his lips against her flesh he could feel Alex’s muscles start to relax. Once he made it to her shoulder where her bra strap lay forgotten, Alex expected him to make his way back up to her lips. Instead he surprised her and caught it between his teeth and pulled it further down her arm until he caught the sight of her left breast spill out of its cup. Jason kept his teeth wrapped around her bra strap while he turned his eyes to meet hers. She held his lustful gaze for a couple of seconds before she flicked her gaze down to her newly exposed flesh.

Jason was so surprised at her forwardness that his jaw dropped open in surprise and he unconsciously allowed her bra strap to fall back against her elbow. Alex let out a low, throaty laugh because she couldn’t believe that that move had worked and so well. But before she could relish in her victory, Jason stole her breath away by swooping down and capturing her exposed nipple between his lips.

“Jay-ay-ay-son,” she stuttered out as his gentle kiss turned into vigorous nibbling. “Ohhh… Jay… Mmmm…”

Hear how much Alex _appreciated_ his efforts, Jason doubled them until her nipple was pebbled to a hard, wet peak. She was still unable to do anything beyond letting out a few appreciative moans and sighs, so Jason kissed his way to the other side of Alex’s chest until his lips hit the pesky barrier of the cloth that made up the other half of her bra. He started to feel Alex’s breathing start to even out, so Jason gently used his nose to nudge the fabric away from the prize that awaited him underneath.

Alex couldn’t see anything except the back of Jason’s head but she could feel what he was doing, so she just laid back and tried to relax and enjoy his efforts. Her hands found the back of his head the same moment that his hungry mouth found her neglected nipple. She couldn’t find the breath to show her appreciation audibly, so she opted to just use her hands instead. Her nimble fingers continued their deep tissue massage of Jason’s scalp as his tongue did things against her flesh that Alex couldn’t have imagined were possible if she wasn’t feeling them for herself right now. Without her consciously noticing, her hands fell away from his head and were quickly replaced by the sounds of her low, unintelligible moans.

If she had the breath or strength to protest or get angry, Alex probably would have when she felt Jason’s lips pull back into a self-satisfied smirk. However as it was, she was too lost in her feelings of ecstasy to focus on anything else. He wisely didn’t allow himself to wallow in that victory before he moved his mouth to explore more of her flesh. First he moved his face to the valley between her breasts to bury his nose where he could easily have drowned himself in her scent, but he didn’t want it to end there, for either of them.

He had to force himself to raise his head, which was further impeded by Alex’s heavy palms that were now pressed to the back of his skull. She seemed content to end their night there, but Jason had other ideas. Alex had found the courage to bare herself to play out what he could only assume was one of her wildest fantasies with him and he wasn’t going to let it end with just some very heated oral contact… Well at least not before he had at least caused her to reach orgasm at least once.

Alex was so lost in the sensations that Jason’s lips were sending through her body that it didn’t take much for Jason to get away from her grasp. He slowly made his way down the center of her torso and briefly stopped to playfully bite the small patch of fabric that connected the two cups that made up her bra. Once again Alex’s hands fell limply to the counter top she was laying on while Jason continued to worship her flesh.

After he made his way past the cloth that barely remained a barrier between his lips and her flesh, Jason’s lips continued their course down to the bottom of her ribcage and there they started to divert their course. If Alex had of been thinking straight she would have remembered where his lips were headed. As it was, Alex just allowed herself to remain lost in the feeling of Jason’s embraces.

Well she was until his tongue finally met its mark. Jason pointed his tongue to trace the length of the scar that ran diagonally from the tip of her right hipbone up to just below her belly button. It had taken some time, much to Jason’s surprise, for him to discover this scar, but it had quickly become his favorite part of her body to lavish all kinds of attention to try to show her that he loved her, every last part of her no matter how imperfect she thought that it might be. Alex on the other hand had a very different outlook on her boyfriend focusing so much attention and affection on the one part of her body that she could never heal nor erase even after she became a werewolf. For the longest time that scar had defined her life, her potential for happiness and it had been everything she could do to overcome the sorrow that constantly threatened to overtake her when she was reminded of how she received it and now… now Jason seemed to go out of his way to attract attention to it.

“JASON,” Alex reprimanded sounding more perturbed than she did passionate.

He knew where her thoughts were going so he played ignorant as he moved his lips back up to her torso to try to reach her lips. As his lips traveled past her jaw bone, Alex turned her head slightly to make it harder for him to reclaim her lips. Jason knew what he had done still bothered Alex, but he was determined to prove to her that she was wrong.

Jason kissed Alex’s cheek a couple of times before he moved his face back to look down at her. Alex too in a couple of breaths to prepare herself for the verbal tirade that she wanted to unleash on Jason for once again ignoring her dislike of him drawing attention to her scar. She had no idea what she wanted to say but she did know that she wanted to be looking into his eyes when she finally did get it out.

With that in mind Alex turned her face and immediately met Jason’s eyes. They twinkled with an emotion that she couldn’t quite put her finger on as his smile started to morph into something more than it was previously. She opened her mouth to question him, but before she could get a word out Jason leaned back further and pet the side of her face as he stated in a low, reverent tone, “You are so beautiful Alex.”

With every word he said, Jason moved his mouth closer to Alex’s and he finished by gently biting her bottom lip. Alex whimpered out a noise that caused Jason to kiss her more soundly on her mouth before whispering, “You really are gorgeous… from your beautiful head right down to your cute little toes…”

Alex chuckle without it sounding like it was filled with humor before she asked, “Warts and all?”

Jason didn’t want to acknowledge her self-deprecating reply just continued to peck random parts of her face and neck until their eyes met again. While he distracted her with his kisses he settled himself between her legs and looked her straight in the eyes saying, “And all.”

Alex’s eyes widened at feeling Jason thrust his full length into her awaiting moistened canal. Just had it had before, the sensation of Jason driving into her caused all of Alex’s doubts and thoughts of self-loathing to disappear… at least momentarily.

Alex wrapped her legs around his waist and lifted her buttocks off the countertop ever so slightly so that Jason would brush against her G-Spot every time that he moved in and out of her. Jason felt Alex shift her body and tried to smile through his near labored breaths. Alex was panting under her efforts while she tried to match his pace in order for him to reach his climax at the same time as her.

Jason could tell what she was doing so he doubled his efforts in order to push her over the edge before him. He knew that she could orgasm more than once while making love and he preferred the sensation of climaxing with her after she had reached completion once or twice. He and Alex had discussed this fact and although she was happy to oblige, Alex was competitive enough that she still wanted to attempt to push him over the edge before he could do the same to her.

Since he was working harder to cause he to climax, Alex’s body started to move up the island ever so slightly. When this happened in bed Alex would anchor herself by gripping the headboard tightly, if there was one, or the edge of the mattress so she moved her hands to her sides to try to do just that. Unfortunately the island was too wide and her arms were too short to reach the edges so all that she ended up doing was slapping the table top with her palms.

Jason didn’t notice her brief moment of frustration because his eyes remained focused on watching Alex’s abdominal muscles ripple and contract as they worked to try to keep up with him. Alex then moved her hands above her head and used some of the lessons she had been practicing with Richard to use. Between her overwhelming feelings of ecstasy she tried to focus some of her energy on her hands to try to consciously cause them to shift. She had been somewhat successful during her lessons, but they had always been in a controlled environment and this was her first time actually attempting to do this during the throes of passion. She knew that she had let her hands shift accidentally before when she was ‘with’ Jason, so she figured that it should be easy enough for her to do it of her own free will now.

A soft moan of appreciation escaped her lips as Jason swiveled his hips to hit every inch of her canal differently than he had before just as she felt her hands turn into talon like claws. She dug her newly transformed hands into the island and then surprised Jason by lifting her hips once again to grind them against him in a complementary motion. Jason wasn’t sure how she did it, but remained mesmerized up until the moment he felt her walls contract almost violently around him as she screamed out her enjoyment. Felling her tumble over the edged pushed him to his completion as he thrust one more time deeply into her womb as he emptied every last bit of himself into her depths.

After he had his breathing somewhat under control, Jason rolled to his left so that his torso was off Alex’s body and he was laying on his side looking at her. Alex turned her head so that they could look at each other more easily, but she only moved her body just enough so that she had tangled her legs up with Jason’s which caused him to laugh silently to himself. He had on more than one occasion told Alex that it was futile for her to argue with him about how undeniably sexy she was and moments like this he actually felt like he was winning that battle.

He gently brushed a sweaty lock of hair from Alex’s forehead with his index finger as she let out a breath, “Wow.”

Jason chuckled softly then said, “Yeah… wow. Alex you are amazing and this place… oh… Oh no…” His eyes moved from her face to where her hands were now shifting back to normal. His eyes flicked from the prominent holes in the island to Alex’s face and back as he stuttered out, “Alex, I… It… I mean…”

Alex stretched out languidly and let her fingertips brush against the damage she had incurred. She smiled as she rolled onto her right side and placed her left hand on Jason’s back so that she could pull herself closer to him.

When he remained stationary in his place, Alex made a show of trying to look above her head before she somewhat dismissively said, “Oh don’t worry about that Jason. Jean-Claude said that I could replace anything I want in the kitchen and this island? It just has to go. Seriously the finish on this wood is just… ugh it just will not do.”

Realizing that Alex was actually trying to make a joke and poke fun at his misplace concern, Jason let out a quick laugh and rolled onto his back while pulling Alex even closer to him. I didn’t take much effort at all for her to snuggle into his side and make herself comfortable on the hard surface of the island.

Once she had settled he cheek on his chest, Jason placed his free hand behind his head and asked, “So what’s next? I mean… what else are you dying to replace in this kitchen _ma gamine_?”

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

Jason stepped into his room and couldn’t help but laugh when he saw Alex’s body flopped, completely naked, on his… their bed. He knew that she had been working overtime with her were-animal staff before moving on to work with the vampires that were seeking employment at her restaurant, but this was the first time that he had had a chance to bear witness to her exhaustion. Every other time she had been slipping into bed just as he was getting up to fulfill his duties as the Master of the City’s _Pomme de Sang_ , so he hadn’t really had an opportunity to appreciate just how hard she had been working or the exhaustion that came with the hours she had been working.

It took him less than a minute to remember that he shouldn’t have been privy to that sight, even now. Alex knew that Jean-Claude had called a meeting for all of them to attend when they had awoken for ‘the day’, so she was supposed to have finished her work at the restaurant early to avoid being too exhausted to participate in the discussion. Although she had promised, numerous times, that she would make sure to be home early so that she had ample time to get ready, Jason had been certain that she wouldn’t be ready or back to the Circus of the Damned much earlier than had become her norm. He was pleasantly surprised that she had in fact made it back to the Circus earlier than he had predicted, but with that being said he still felt like she was over-extending herself and was making promises she couldn’t keep on a much more frequent basis.

Jason had made the mistake of voicing his concern to Alex earlier that day when she was on her way out the door to work. Well in reality is was just a mere mention of it vaguely in passing as she left for her latest round of kitchen staff ‘auditions’ while he was getting ready for bed, but Alex had been quick to pounce. She had reacted so animatedly that Jason had tried to play that comment down and blamed him saying it on him being overly tired himself. Then he skillfully shift their almost fight into him admitting that it was his way of saying that he missed her because lately it seemed like the only time they saw each other was when one of them was crawling into bed while the other was forcing themselves to get out of bed. That had done the trick and Alex had felt guilty enough about their lack of time spent together that she hadn’t uttered another word of argument. Instead she just kissed him good-bye with yet another promise that she would be home extra early.

Alex hadn’t moved a muscle since he had entered the room, so he remained in the doorway to watch her sleep for a little bit longer. While he stood there admiring the view he felt someone step up behind him. Without turning to look at the newcomer, Jason moved over to one side so that they could see what had him so transfixed.

Nathaniel placed a hand on Jason’s shoulder so that he could lean into the room a bit more to get a better look at the bed. When he saw Alex’s current state, he let out a low whistle as he straightened up in his spot.

“Do you think she’ll be up and ready in time for tonight’s meeting?”

Jason turned and jutted his chin towards the hallway to silently request that his friend meet him a few feet away from the door. He gave Alex one last lingering look over his shoulder as he closed the door so that he wouldn’t continue to be distracted by her. When he turned to address Nathaniel he could see the worry and apprehension that the wereleopard was feeling plain on his face. Jason knew that Nathaniel was concerned, so he wanted to make sure that he calmed his best-friend’s fears before getting to the next topic that he needed to discuss with him.

Jason then held his hands up and quietly replied, “Don’t look so worried Nathaniel. Yes she will be ready because we’re going to make sure that she is… that is if you’re willing to help me.”

“Jason, of course you know I am. What can I do to help?”

The werewolf smiled because he knew that that would be his friend’s answer.

 

“Perfect. First, I think she’s going to be sore from being on her feet all day and she’ll probably need to soak in a hot tub. Can you maybe run a bath in Jean-Claude’s room so she can do that once I get her up? Plus she always says that she feels more refreshed after a hot bath.”

“Yeah, sure I can do that.”

“Okay… good. Next… she might not be able to walk there on her own and might need some help with that. Normally I would be more than happy to oblige her in that regard, but it might lead her to wanting to take advantage of me and since Jean-Claude hasn’t fed yet and all…”

Nathaniel laughed then said, “I see where you’re going with that and yes, I’ll help her out with that too so that you don’t over-extend yourself again.”

“Awesome. I knew you would,” Jason answered as he placed a hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder. “Alright then, you go start the bath and I’ll work on waking Alex up.”

Nathaniel smiled but forced himself not to voice the first thoughts that popped into his head. Instead he just turned and started down the hallway and called out a good-natured and teasing, “Good luck!”

Jason shook his head and smiled to himself because he was more than certain that that wasn’t the only thing Nathaniel had wanted to say to him. He truly wasn’t looking forward to being the one who disturbed Alex’s slumber because he was pretty sure she was going to be cranky from being awoken from a deep sleep after such a long, hard day of training her new staff. Plus he knew that as the one that was forcing her out of bed that he was going to be the primary focus for her wrath.

At the closed door of their bedroom, Jason took a moment to collect himself before he finally forced himself to turn the door knob. He then quietly entered the room and carefully closed the door to try to keep from disturbing Alex just yet. He almost did laugh out loudly when he noticed that she was in the exact same position she had been in when he and Nathaniel had left the room.

As he silently made his way over the carpeted floor, he tried to plan out how he was going to do about waking up the slumbering werewolf. He could see her back rising and falling softly as she breathed but he noticed that nothing else on her body was moving. She looked so peaceful that he didn’t want to disturb her, but he knew that they couldn’t ignore Jean-Claude’s not so subtle reminders of his request for ALL of them to attend the salon in just a few short hours.

He carefully sat down on the edge of the bed beside one of Alex’s hips and chuckled softly when she didn’t so much as twitch when he did so, instead she just continued to sleep soundly. As he watched her, his left hand moved towards her back and before he could stop himself, he was running his fingertips up and down her naked back. Alex had had her face turned towards Jason’s pillow, but the instant that he touched her she shifted her head so that her left cheek was on her pillow and Jason could now somewhat see the right side of her face through her hair. As Jason continued to softly run his fingers up and down her back, Alex let out a loud sigh as she settled even further in her place to continue to sleep.

Yet again Jason almost let out a loud burst of laughter at Alex’s demeanor, but he quickly stifled it by turning his head and smiling into his left shoulder. Alex finally started to squirm under his gentle touch and then Jason stopped the movement of his hand in a quick sort of ‘Eureka’ moment. Suddenly he knew how he would wake her from her slumber gently enough that he wouldn’t become a substitute punching bag and he was somewhat eager to put his theory to the test.

Before getting started Jason leaned forward to tuck Alex’s hair behind her ear so that he had an unobstructed view of the side of her face. When he noticed the smile that had spread across her face, he nearly abandoned his course to let her continue to sleep in peace. The instances where she looked genuinely happy were becoming more frequent over her stay in St. Louis and Jason loathed ever being the reason that a smile would ever dim on Alex’s face.

But Jason wasn’t guilt-ridden enough to allow himself to forget that ALL of them at the Circus and beyond lived as comfortably as they did because Jean-Clause allowed and facilitated it. He didn’t need to hear stories about the previous Master of the City’s tyranny because he had lived through their last Lupa’s reign of terror and knew that one was an acceptable comparison of the other. Even thinking of both of them now made him shudder in his spot because it didn’t take much for them to imagine how horrific things could be if they had to live with a Master of the City who had werewolves as their Animal to Call and who also had a temperament similar to that of their last Master and yeah, he knew that their lives could be worse than they were now… they could be much, much worse.

He felt and involuntary shudder make its way through his body as Jason relived some of the events and memories evoked by his last thought. While he was lost in his own thought of their city’s unpleasant past, Jason almost completely missed how Alex was responding to his ministrations. Not only was her torso starting to move slightly (in order to maximize her body’s contact with Jason’s fingers), Alex was also moaning softly in the back of her throat.

The sounds that Alex was making helped to bring Jason out of his own head and into the present. He smiled to himself and then he shifted the trajectory of his fingers form the center of her back to the right of side of her torso at her ribcage. She started to react more animatedly to his touch, so Jason finally did allow himself to let out a very soft, almost imperceptible laugh.

He continued to run just his fingertips all over Alex’s ribs, her back and even her buttocks as he quietly called out, “Alex… Alex… Al-ex… come on Alex… time to wake up…”

Alex’s right arm started moving as if it was trying to find Jason’s wandering hand. Seeing that cause him to chuckle even louder than he had meant to before he said, “Come on Alex we have to get ready for the meeting.”

“Mmm-rum-phh…”

Jason laughed again, still not trying to control the volume with which he did so, and then he replied in a playful, mocking tone, “I can’t hear you when your face is smooshed into your pillow like that.”

Alex then became more alert and she lifted her head so that she could catch Jason’s still moving hand as she simultaneously grumbled, “Five more minutes.”

“Alex…” Jason started only to be interrupted by Nathaniel calling out, “Five more minutes and your bath will be cold.”

“Bath?” Alex asked sleepily with her head back on her pillow.

She started to roll over onto her back so Jason didn’t stop her before he replied, “Yes my _loupe d’or_ , he’s run you a nice hot bath for you to relax in before you start your night.”

Although Jason using their private nickname for her caused Alex to smile even brighter, Alex still continued to grumble sullenly, “But I’m sleepy… and tired… and sore.”

“I know that you are,” Jason whispered over her lips before he kissed them. Alex would have been happy enough to continue kissing her boyfriend’s lips, but he kept his original goal in mind as he leaned out of their embrace to say, “That’s why I got Nathaniel to run you a hot bath… now come on Alex… it’s time to get up.”

“But can’t we just…” Alex started as she wrapped her arms around Jason’s neck, “Can’t we just stay in bed…? Together…? For just a little while longer?”

Jason tried to gently extract himself from Alex’s surprisingly strong hold and he was thankfully saved by Nathaniel saying, “As much as I enjoy being a voyeur when it’s permitted, especially when it involves the two of you, but I think that this is where I have to step in as the voice of reason.”

At hearing the other man’s voice, Alex let her arms drop from holding Jason’s neck and she opted to just glare at Nathaniel the best that she could right then instead of voicing her displeasure. Jason sat back, while still trying to hide her nudity the best that he could. Even though she had been living with them all for a while, both at the Circus as well as a few sleepovers at Anita’s house, she still wasn’t always all that comfortable with casual nudity as were some of their friends and coworkers. Jason had tried to get Richard to speak to her about it to help to ease her fears, but that plan had backfired BADLY so Jason tried to figure out ways to ease her into it on his own. Most of the time that meant that he would shield her just in case she wasn’t feeling particularly ‘friendly’ at the time and then he would back off if she let him know that she was in fact comfortable in that situation.

Nathaniel was quick to pick up on the hostility he could feel radiating off Alex after his interruption, but he chose to completely ignore it by continuing to say as he approached them, “I thought it would be wise since Jason hasn’t fed Jean-Claude yet and we all remember what happened last time.”

Alex’s cheeks rogued as she tried to recoil back into the mattress. Jason leaned down to peck her cheek but before he could explain his best friend’s presence, Nathaniel placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and said, “That’s why Jason asked me to help… He thought that you’d be more comfortable with me taking you to the bath but… I could go get Sin or someone else to do it if you wanted…”

Alex and Jason chuckled at the trio’s inside joke because despite of all of their efforts Sin still seemed to believe that Alex would cut off one of his body parts. The fact that he was bigger, physically stronger and had (at least) comparable psychic power as her, he still treated her like he was afraid of her. Alex was determined to win him over and so far she had managed to convince him to sit and eat with her on occasion instead of taking his food and running away somewhere else to eat. The fact that he stayed more than once when it was just the two of them was encouraging, so she knew it wouldn’t be long until he wasn’t totally freaked out by her and they all knew that seeing her naked wasn’t the way for her to finish winning the young were-tiger over.

While she was still laughing, Alex once again relaxed bay against their pillows. Jason then leaned back against Nathaniel so that it was easier for both of them to look down at her. When she did nothing to try to cover herself up, Jason tried to ignore the fact that he was still fully clothed while Nathaniel, well he wasn’t quite ‘fully’ clothed. The wereleopard had stripped down until he was only wearing a pair of purple silk boxer shorts and a white tank top.

The two males were smiling down at Alex while she just stared up at them silently with a look that neither of them could decipher on her face. She couldn’t help but think that this was one of those times in her life when she really wanted to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming. Preparations for the restaurant were going better than she had expected. She had chosen kitchen and wait staff that she knew would be great after she had worked with them a bit more. She had business partners who left her alone to plan everything in the in the kitchen while they managed the interior decorators and everything else outside of the kitchen without any words of complaint. But the icing on the cake for her were the new friends that she had made and no two people were more important to her than the two men that were in the room with her right then. Sure Richard was the first werewolf she had ever trusted and confided in, although that confidence was given to him before she knew who he really was and since then they hadn’t had a chance to spend much time together. Both of their jobs were very demanding (mostly because they let them be) and their hours weren’t very compatible right now either. Nathaniel and Jason however, they were with her pretty much every step of the way and no one was better at calming her down than her boyfriend or his best friend.

A smile started to spread across her face as she silently repeated the word ‘boyfriend’ in her head. When she wrote her letter to Jean-Claude and Anita she had hoped that she would be able to settle in St. Louis, but she had never taken the tie to plan out what that would mean. Now she had a restaurant (that would open soon) and a partner with whom she had started to make a home. How her life had shifted from being full of turmoil and absolute chaos to being filled with the prospect of business prosperity and romantic bliss in such a relatively short timeframe completely baffled her. But more than that, it made her feel completely grateful, more specifically like she owed a huge debt of gratitude to Jason and Nathaniel and right now she was feeling slightly guilty for giving them a hard time for waking her up from her nap.

Jason watched Alex with a careful eye as her smile started to fade from her face. He opened his mouth to question her but before he could get a word out he heard Alex quietly say, “I’m sorry.”

He looked over his shoulder to look a question at Nathaniel, but all that he got in reply from the were-leopard was a shake of his head and a quick shrug. Jason then turned his attention to the naked werewolf who was still laying down in front of him. Alex’s cheerful, hay expression was quickly replaced by one that was so filled with sadness that he could almost feel the tears welling up in his eyes.

Alex swallowed thickly then repeated with more volume in her voice, “I said ‘I’m sorry’…” She waited a couple of seconds but when Jason and Nathaniel continued to look confused by her apology, she crossed her arms over her chest and crossed her legs to try to cover herself up as she quietly explained, “I shouldn’t have glared at you like that Nathaniel… you’re just trying to help…” She then turned her eyes so that she was looking Jason in the eye. “And I’m sorry for not keeping my promise Jason. I swear I really didn’t mean to stay so long at the restaurant, but Opal came up with a really great idea and then we started to play around with some recipes and then…”

Jason saw Alex’s bottom lip start to tremble when her voice trailed off so he smiled warmly as he got off the bed. He quickly retrieved her robe off a hook they had installed beside the bed and then he made his way back to Alex’s side. Nathaniel had moved around to the other side of the bed and was helping Alex to sit up when Jason got back to her side.

As he helped her slip her arms into the robe Jason finished Alex’s thought by saying, “And then you lost track of time and once you were able to pry yourself away you were so exhausted when you got back here that you passed out on our bed when you were trying to get ready to have a shower?”

Alex’s cheeks turned a dark pink color as she bashfully replied, “Yeah… something like that.”

Jason chuckled softly and you could hear the laughter in Nathaniel’s voice as he replied, “It’s okay Alex, you aren’t the only workaholic that lives here at the Circus. But with that being said, we really should get you out of bed and start getting ready for the meeting. Jean-Claude was waking up when I left his room and he seems really eager about having a sit down with all of us.”

With Jason’s help Alex had stared to make her way off the bed, but she froze in her place when Nathaniel finished speaking. Very slowly and carefully she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder to ask, “He… he wasn’t… uhh… he’s not upset that we’re using his bath is he? Because if he is…”

She once again trailed off when she heard both men laugh quietly. Jason pulled her into a huge as Nathaniel replied, “No he wasn’t upset at all. In fact he was fine with it because he has some new outfits for you that he hasn’t had a chance to have brought here for you yet, so he as just going to leave them on his bed for you to try on.”

“More clothes?” Alex asked in awe as she snaked her arms around Jason’s waist. “Really? I mean it isn’t that I don’t appreciate it, but I’m pretty sure that he’s already replaced my old wardrobe at least three times over already. He really doesn’t have to keep wasting his money on me like that.”

“He doesn’t see it as a waste,” Jason said as he gave her a squeeze. “He really enjoys getting to play dress up with all of us and to share his wealth with everyone that’s under his protection.”

“He’s had to live under some truly terrible Masters and knows that a lot of us have had to do the same, so it’s his way of reminding all of us that he genuinely cares about us,” Nathaniel added.

“Yeah I get that, but honestly it’s too much… too generous,” Alex countered. “He really doesn’t need to keep buying me gifts. Especially not after everything he’s spent on renovations and appliances and everything else for the restaurant.”

“Well it’s not about need. He has the money and he wants to spend it on the people he cares about. Just do what the rest of us do Alex, wear whatever it is once or twice, depending on how much you like it, and then shove it in your closet and forget about it if you don’t particularly like it,” Jason teased.

Alex smiled then said, “But at this rate we’re not going to have any room for your clothes in our closet.”

“Oh well I guess that means he’ll just have to build us a bigger closet.”

Alex groaned then playfully hit Jason’s chest as she said, “You’re terrible.”

“And we’re going to be late,” Nathaniel jumped in knowing how easily Jason and Alex could get distracted when they were together. “Jason why don’t you go first and feed Jean-Claude and we’ll meet you there in a minute?”

Jason looked down at Alex and shrugged saying, “He’s right, I should go. I’ll see you in a bit.”

He then gave her a quick kiss on the lips and then released her from his hold. As he started to step away he froze in his spot when he saw Alex’s knees start to give out on her. Before he could move Nathaniel lunged forward to catch her so that she wouldn’t fall. He quickly waved Jason off and mouthed the word ‘GO’ before he turned his attention back to the werewolf in his arms.

“Are you okay Alex?” He asked worriedly.

Alex’s blush returned with a vengeance and she refused to make eye contact with him as she replied, “Would you believe that even though I spent all day in a kitchen that I think I forgot to eat lunch and dinner?” Nathaniel sighed out a quiet, sympathetic ‘Oh Alex’ as he shifted her in his arms so that he had a more comfortable hold on her. With her eyes still fixed securely on the ground she sheepishly added, “Plus I was on my feet for like fourteen hours straight, so I think they’re protesting my abuse and over use of them.”

Much to Alex’s relief Nathaniel laughed at her joke. He then slipped one arm around her waist and another under her knees to pick her up ‘bridal style’. Alex let out a quick exclamation of surprise and then she laughed self-consciously as she slipped her arms around his neck.

“I was just going to ask if you needed any help with that,” Nathaniel teased her with a humorous tone.

Alex hugged the wereleopard’s neck answering, “Nope arms work fine, it’s just my old tired legs are a problem. Thanks again for helping me out.”

“Always happy to help out a friend.”

Alex let out a contented sigh and rested her head comfortably on Nathaniel’s shoulder. At first he thought that she was going to fall back asleep, but then he felt her softly rubbing her cheek against the exposed skin of his shoulder.

“If Jean-Claude is so eager about having this meeting, should I be worried?” Alex asked in a small unsure voice.

Nathaniel hugged Alex the best that he could with the way he held her and while walking to try to reassure her. “I don’t think ‘worried’ is the right word, but his insistence that we all be there has me feeling cautious because it usually means that the topic of conversation is going to be fairly serious.”

By this time they had made it to Jean-Claude’s room. Alex wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings other than the scent and feel of Nathaniel’s warm skin. She had her eyes closed in an effort to focus solely on that so that she could keep herself calm. Nathaniel’s eyes however swept every inch of the large bedroom. He wasn’t at all surprised to find it empty because he knew that Jean-Claude had some preparations to complete before they all sat down for their discussion. Plus knowing how deeply connected and in tune Jason and Alex appeared to have grown over the last short while, Nathaniel also suspected that his best friend was aware of Alex’s likelihood to have forgotten to eat while she was caught up in her work and that he was putting something together for her. All of the men in Anita’s life had grown very aware of her propensity to skip meals when she was deep in investigation mode, so Alex’s behavior wasn’t all that unusual to all of them.

In the bathroom Nathaniel gently placed Alex on the stairs to the bath tub. As he carefully extracted her from her robe he couldn’t help but notice the dreamy look on her face. She didn’t make a wound, but she looked so serene and eerily calm that it almost made him feel uneasy.

After he had her out of her robe, Alex’s demeanor still hadn’t changed, so he reached out a hand and gently pet her on the cheek to get her attention. Her eyes slowly fluttered open. It took her a minute or two to focus on his face, but once she did a soft, blissful smile spread across her face.

“Vanilla…” she whispered. “It always reminds me of my mom. She loved the scent of vanilla and used everything that she could find to keep our house smelling like it.”

Nathaniel stared at her with a look of disbelief because Alex rarely spoke about her past and almost never mentioned her parents. The fact that she had shared such a personal information with him had him slightly dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Seeing the shocked look on his face forced Alex out of her distracted state and she started to cringe and recoil into herself.

“Nathaniel did I…? Umm…what I said, was it…?”

“No!” The wereleopard interrupted as he sat down beside her and wrapped her in a hug. “No it’s nothing like that Alex, it just…. I wasn’t really expecting you to share that much with me. Everything is totally okay between us. I’m sorry that I worried you.”

Alex let out a soft sigh as she burrowed into the warmth of his embrace. “You shouldn’t be apologizing Nathaniel, I should be apologizing to you. You guys have shared so much with me and I… I…”

“Hey Alex it’s alright. You don’t have to feel guilty for not telling us everything. We know the most important stuff about you already.”

“Thank Nathaniel. It’s just that…”

“Shh Alex you don’t have to explain. I know that you kept your private life guarded even before you moved here so you don’t have to change that if you aren’t ready to, okay? I… we won’t push you.”

“Okay,” she quietly agreed as she squeezed his torso. “And like you’ve mentioned more than once, we need to get ready sooner than later so we should do that.”

Nathaniel let out a beautiful, masculine laugh before he answered, “That we should.”

He then picked Alex up once again to carry her into the bath. It wasn’t until Nathaniel was sitting in the tub with her on his lap that she noticed that he had removed all of his clothing as well. For a brief moment she went rigid in his arms but he had already started petting the length of her arms to help soother her, so she relaxed against him quickly. He continued to massage her arms and moved her slightly forward on his thighs so that he could massage her back as well. Alex actually let all of her muscles relax under his ministrations. As she let herself go completely limp, she started to slip off of Nathaniel’s lap. At first he tried to catch her, but Alex gently pushed his hands away and soon her whole body was submerged under the bath water.

Nathaniel stayed on his seat watching Ales with a careful eye to make sure that she wasn’t in any distress. Much like the first time she had used these facilities, Alex relished in the sensation of the hot water enveloping her whole body. She hadn’t taken in a large breath of air into her lungs before she dipped under the water so she was forced to surface sooner than she would have liked.

She turned towards Nathaniel once she surfaced with a soft smile on her face. When she saw how far away from Nathaniel that she had floated, Alex startled slightly in her spot. Nathaniel saw Alex shiver, but he had no idea why that would happen. The water hadn’t cooled enough to be noticeable during their brief time spent in the tub, so he watched her with a cautious eye as she swam back towards him.

Alex hadn’t caught the worried look on Nathaniel’s face, so he was even more confused when he heard her laugh softly once she reached him. Alex moved to a spot beside the wereleopard and she still sounded like she was laughing when she commented, “I still can’t believe that this tub is so big that I can swim in it. I honestly never thought that I would see something like this ever in my lifetime.”

Nathaniel chuckled at her commentary as he passed her a bottle of body wash saying, “When it comes to making people feel better Jean-Claude seems to go with the ‘bigger is better’ approach.”

As she poured a generous amount of body wash into her hand, Alex smile to herself because the bottle Nathaniel had passed her contained vanilla scented body wash. Although it looked like Nathaniel had grabbed a bottle at random, she had gotten to know him well enough to know that it had to be deliberate. He appeared to go out of his way to make sure that she had access to everything he had read that she had enjoyed in her previous life. At first it was just her wardrobe that she noticed that he had suggested to their Master to purchase but then she found her favorite foods and brand of cooking utensils in the kitchen. The latest manifestation of this trend was a small radio that had appeared in Jason’s room along with an assortment of CDs of some of her favorite artists. At first she was confused by it, but then she remembered an interview she had done where she told the reporter that for as long as she could remember that she had only been able to fall and stay asleep if she was listening to music. That of course was just one of so many things that had changed for her once she had become a werewolf.

She ducked under the water to rinse the soap off her body and hair and as she came out of the water she heard herself say, “My mom was a stay at home mom. She loved being a homemaker over anything else…”

She closed her eyes then dipped her head under the water again to make sure all of the soap was out of her hair and face. Nathaniel wasn’t sure where her confession had come from so he remained silent to let her continue at her own pace. After Alex surfaced for a third time she moved to the top step outside of the tub and sat down. Without making any eye contact with Nathaniel she found one of the folded towels he had piled by the tub and started drying her hair.

Thinking that meant that Alex was finished sharing her personal history, at least for now, Nathaniel followed her lead and exited the bath. As he moved around to unplug the tub and drain the water he heard Alex quietly say, “My dad worked with boats… well he owned a small, but very well-known small shipping company and a marine mechanic shop… he made pretty good money doing that so my mom didn’t have to work, even if she had wanted to…”

Nathaniel was once again frozen where he stood beside the oversized bathtub by Alex’s words. Alex noticed his reaction but tried not to draw attention to it so she continued to dry herself off as if nothing had happened. Her acting so normally helped Nathaniel to shake himself out of his state and he swiftly moved to her side to do the same. Alex now had her hair secured away in a ‘towel turban’ and was working on drying the beads of water off her legs. Out the corner of his eye Nathaniel watched her move the towel from her legs up to her torso to a spot that had intrigued him and Jason and caused much speculation between the two males.

Alex’s hand seemed to linger on that spot as well so Nathaniel made a point to turn his eyes away so that she wouldn’t catch him watching her. Alex draped the towel over her shoulders and with her index finger idly stroking the sizeable scar on her lower abdomen she stated as if speaking to nobody but the room itself, “After my parents died, a trustee took over dad’s companies… I… I still get an allowance of sorts that goes into a bank account in Seattle. I… I haven’t touched it since I… well you know, went into hiding and all… anyways after… that, I finally took the plunge and moved to France for culinary school after I finished high school. My mom…she had encouraged me to do it before… uhh… but I didn’t really want to leave home until…”

Alex let her thought trail off there as she freed her hair from its towel. After she dropped both her towels onto the tiled stairs, she slowly pulled on her plush bathrobe again. Nathaniel tried not to watch her because he knew that she wasn’t as comfortable with casual nudity as he or Jason were and after confessing so many personal details he knew that she would be feeling even more naked (metaphorically speaking) and he didn’t want her to fell any more uncomfortable than he was she that she was feeling already.

As he pulled on his shorts and tank top, a thought popped into Nathaniel’s head. Before he could stop himself he suddenly blurted out, “That’s when you met Henri La Bouffe.”

Alex smiled softly and tied the belt on her robe answering, “He was my first… uhh… culinary mentor among other things.” They shared an uneasy smile and Alex quietly stated matter-of-factly, “I should go find something to wear. Thank you again for your help Nathaniel.”

He opened his mouth to reply but Alex had slipped out the door before he could utter a single syllable. His eyes then found his reflection in more than one of the bathrooms’ mirrors and after seeing the look on his face he whispered to himself, “Wow, I so wasn’t expecting THAT!”

By the time he stepped out of the bathroom Jason had returned to Jean-Claude’s room with a plate of food for Alex to eat. She could be found sitting still in her charcoal grey, plush bathrobe on an over-sized chair slowly picking at the food on her plate. Even though she had told him that she had forgotten to eat, Nathaniel was concerned that her loss of appetite had more to do with her impromptu confessions to him than anything else.

“I swear I didn’t have any hand in the preparation of this meal, I’m merely the delivery boy,” Jason explained as he lifted a croissant stuffed with artisan cheese and Dijon mustard to her lips.

Alex didn’t pay what Jason was doing or saying any attention and kept her face turned towards Jean-Claude’s bed saying, “It’s too much… he… I… it’s just too much.”

Jason and Nathaniel let their gaze move to where Alex’s eyes appeared to be laser focused. When he saw all of the clothing laid out on the bed Nathaniel then turned his eyes back to the werewolves and laughed.

“Jason forced you to sit down and eat without letting you look at any of it, didn’t he?” The wereleopard asked with a chuckle as he approached his two friends.

Alex’s cheeks started to turn pink causing Jason to dart quick glances between his girlfriend and his best friend. When he couldn’t decipher the meaning of the look Alex and Nathaniel had shared, he turned to his best friend while emphatically trying to defend his actions saying, “I figured that if she got so wrapped up in her work that she was late coming home, then she most likely didn’t stop to eat either.”

Nathaniel smiled a knowing smile as he took the sandwich out of Alex’s hand and helped her to her feet. Jason slumped back down in his spot where he had been kneeling in front of Alex trying to get her to eat. When he noticed that Nathaniel was leading Alex to Jean-Claude’s bed, he jumped to his feet to follow so that he could follow them and find out what Nathaniel had in mind for his girlfriend.

“Alright Alex, if I let you look at the clothes, do you promise to try to eat something?”

Alex tried to glare at Nathaniel for the teasing, near mocking tone he used but she couldn’t pull it off so she more earnestly replied, “Yes… I promise.”

He then led her to the bed and then took a step back as he saw her ghost a hand over some of the clothes. She choked out a sound and Nathaniel threw out a hand to stop Jason before he could touch Alex. Jason turned his angry eyes to his friend, but Nathaniel paid him no mind. Instead the wereleopard raised a finger to his lips then mouthed a silent ‘just give her a minute’.

Jason then turned his eyes back towards where Alex was standing. She had picked something up off the bed and had tears in her eyes as she said, “I can’t believe that he remembered.”

It didn’t take long for Jason to find his way to Alex’s side. As soon as he wrapped an arm around her waist, Alex turned with a garment in each hand tearfully saying, “Not only did he by new chef coats, he also got matching bandanas. I… I… I’m pretty sure I only mentioned wearing bandanas only once to him. How could…? Why would…?”

“Because they’re important to you, Chef Hughes,” Jason interrupted as he stroked his fingertips over her embroidered surname on the left chest of the shirt she was holding. “And it looks like he bought the colors that compliment your eyes and complexion the best too.”

Her cheeks turned pink again and she turned her eyes down to the floor as she replied, “Yeah, they’re the colors he says look best on me as well. But you swear…?” She turned her eyes towards Nathaniel and then let her gaze lock with Jason’s. “You swear you didn’t know anything about this?”

Jason and Nathaniel were shaking their head when they heard Claudia call out, “Alex they really didn’t. Those were actually meant to be a surprise for you for after the meeting.” Alex’s eyebrows turned down in confusion causing Claudia to let out a quick laugh. “I don’t know what he wants to talk to all of us about, but I’m guessing it might not be all that much fun so he bought some presents. Alright, so why don’t we get you ready and get this over with as soon as possible?”

Alex just nodded as she let herself be led out of Jason’s hold. Claudia then moved her towards the other side of the bed to show Alex the non-work attire that had been purchased for her. The majority of it appeared to be clothing that the werewolf was sure wouldn’t be appropriate for any kind of meeting that was important enough for all of them to attend or for Jean-Claude to make such a big deal about, especially to this extent.

“I promise, he wants you to be comfortable tonight,” Claudia explained as she passed Alex a pair of jeans.

Alex took them then smile replying, “Good because I’d rather be dressed comfortably while I stew in my own juices about a subject I know nothing about.”

The wererat security guard wouldn’t rise to the werewolf’s bait and just handed her a t-shirt and pulled her by the hand back towards the bathroom. Alex didn’t get a chance to protest the choice of shirt, not that she truly objected to wearing anything to do with her favorite sport team before she abandoned that life. But in truth she had nearly burned all of her Seattle Mariners’ paraphernalia after her dad passed away, so wearing something now just felt completely out of place for her.

While Claudia led Alex back to the bathroom to finish getting ready, Nathaniel caught Jason’s arm and pulled him back towards the large, non-functional fire place. Jason couldn’t help but stare at his friend with a confused look, but he wasn’t able to get a word out to voice his feelings.

In a low conspiratorial voice Nathaniel announced, “I think… I mean I’m pretty sure that she got that scar from when her parents died.” Jason stared at him in a wide-eyed awe in disbelief prompting Nathaniel to add, “I’m sure that she’ll tell you all about it if you give her time.”


	11. Chapter 11

Alex placed the last arm load of folded clothing on top of her dresser and just stared at it for a moment. She wasn’t sure where it all was going to fit because their closet and drawers were all pretty much filled to being beyond capacity. Even though she wanted to take some time to re-arrange her wardrobe, she once again reminded herself that she didn’t have the time to do it now. She had promised that she would just drop the clothes of and then meet them all at the salon. Jason had been hesitant to leave her to do that alone, but Nathaniel was quick to remind him that the two of them had to meet up with Jean-Claude and Anita before joining everyone. Neither of them were sure why it appeared that they were going to make what sounded like a formal entrance for what was supposed to be an informal meeting, but given the secrecy pertaining to the discussion topic, none of them were inclined to question their Master of the City either.

A knock at the door caused Alex to startle out of her thoughts and jump in her place. However she didn’t start moving until she heard Claudia’s muffled voice calling out, “Alex… Alex…”

“Sorry,” Alex apologized after she had the door open. She started to make her way down the hall and continued quietly when she noticed that the taller wererat had fallen into step with her, “I’ve never considered myself to be all that vain, but I sort of got distracted by seeing myself like this in the mirror.”

Claudia’s only reply was to raise a single questioning eyebrow prompting Alex to elaborate on her lie, “And for it to have been one of the males from my pack to do such a phenomenal job with my makeup… not that I’m sexist or give much credence to gender role designations, but still… I’ve never met a man that could do the things he’s done. Did you see my eyes? That man is like a magician with his eye liner pencil and…”

Not anticipating there being an end to Alex’s current rambling, Claudia let out a low chuckle then replied, “Yeah, Anita has been pretty impressed with Stephen’s work too.” Claudia caught the flash of astonishment that flashed quickly across the werewolf’s face. She let out a boisterous laugh and patted Alex on the back adding, “You do look beautiful. When you get some down time you should ask Stephen to show you how he does it because he really doesn’t mind sharing his secrets.”

Alex flashed her a brilliant smile then said, “Thanks Claudia I’ll make sure to do that. Okay… ready to go in?”

Claudia shook her head. “You go on ahead, I’m going to watch the door until everyone is settled.”

“Oh…” Alex said sounding like she had lost all of the wind from her sails. “Oh-kay… yeah… sure…”

Before Alex could move Claudia grasped her gently by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes saying, “There’s no reason for you to be nervous, I’m just doing my job. I’m not connected to anyone in Jean-Claude’s inner circle so I won’t really be expected to be a part of the discussion. I’m just here to make sure everyone is safe.” Alex gave the taller woman a wide-eyed terrified look prompting Claudia to let out a quick, loud bark of a laugh. “Although things have gotten heated before when everyone was supposed to just be ‘talking’, I didn’t mean it that way. Because of who Jean-Claude, Anita, Richard and even Micah are… because they are the leaders of their groups we bodyguards have to be on the lookout for anyone or anything that might try to harm them. Now enough stalling little wolf, get your butt in there so we can get this all over and done with, okay?”

Alex ducked her head so that Claudia wouldn’t see her cheeks turning pink as she answered, “Yes ma’am.”

She then turned away from Claudia and slowly made her way in to the salon. She had been told several times that this was going to be an informal meeting and that there was nothing to worry about, but she was still worried that she was dressed too casually. Since she had been so stunned by Jean-Claude’s thoughtfulness, Claudia had picked her outfit for the evening and rushed her to change into it so they could quickly do her hair and makeup. Now she tugged at the hem of her plain purple crew neck long sleeved shirt (so that she could keep her necklace hidden, just in case) and wondered if maybe she should have put something else on with her jeans.

While she was lost in her thoughts of self-doubt, Alex caught some movement from the corner of her eye. She immediately let go of her shirt and tried to smooth it down to make herself look more presentable before she raised her head to see who else was in the room. The instant her eyes found him all of her doubts and fears of inadequacy were completely forgotten.

“Richard!” Alex shouted as she shot out of her spot and started running towards the couch where her Ulfric was sitting.

Richard remained still in his seat and just smiled brightly at the younger werewolf. He forced himself not to laugh at Alex’s reaction because he didn’t want to make her feel embarrassed. He didn’t know what it was about her that made him want to do anything in his power to protect her because she had given off an aura of strength from the first moment they met, but he truly did feel she needed his protection. Plus he was starting to feel lately like no woman would react to him like Alex did (except for maybe a few of his students) so he was more than happy to take pleasure in her excitement.

Suddenly Alex stopped in her place just a few feet away from Richard. He felt his smile fall from his face and opened his mouth to speak but remained silent when he noticed Alex looked like she was going to explain the change in her demeanor.

“I… I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t… you know… act like… umm… that,” Alex quietly stated.

Richard stood up and took a step closer to her asking, “Act like what?”

“Like… like I have a school-girl crush on you or something.”

Before Alex could shrink back any more than she already had, Richard quickly scooped her up into his arms and hugged her tightly. Since he was so much taller than her, Alex’s arms wrapped themselves around his neck at the same time she felt her feet leave the ground. Feeling her reciprocate his embrace caused Richard to hug her even more tightly to his chest, almost to the point of nearly injuring her.

He then took a couple of steps back and sat down in his spot. Once Alex settled more comfortably on his lap, Richard pushed Alex’s hair back off her face and tucked it behind her ears so that they could make comfortable eye contact.

“Raya… err Alex, please don’t apologize for being excited to see me because I’ve missed you too,” he said in a low careful, caring tone. “In fact I think I will be more hurt the day when you stop being so happy to see me.”

Alex leaned in and hugged his neck briefly and after she had sat back she replied, “That’ll never happen. As for it being so long…”

“I know, getting everything in place at the restaurant is very time consuming.”

“True, but I’m sorry I didn’t make it out to the Lupanar for the full moon this month. I had a ton of fun with everyone last month and really wanted to hang out with the pack again.”

“That’s good to hear. I had hoped that you did. So do you mind me asking why you didn’t make it?”

“I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I did mind. Since my life has been so consumed by the restaurant Jason surprised me with a day of activities planned just for the two of us… you know since we hardly ever see each other and all. Going to the Lupanar WAS part of those plans but then we got distracted and by the time we notice the time it was too late to drive out there.”

“Oh… so where did you go?”

“Well we weren’t too far from Anita’s so we went there and then we did some hunting in the woods by her place. Since it was such a warm night Jason and I just crashed in her backyard and then we spent most of the next day at her house as well. But I promise I will try really hard to make it out there next month.”

“That would be nice, but no pressure. Your restaurant will most likely be open by then, so no one will blame you if you can’t make it out.”

Alex smiled and sounded genuinely relieved when she replied, “That’s good to know. Thank you.”

Richard smiled back at her while running his fingers through her hair. “So you’re letting your hair grow out?”

“Yeah, at least just a little bit more. It’s easier to pull it all back for work if it’s at least past my shoulders.”

“That makes sense. And the color? You’re sticking with your natural brown?”

Alex’s face scrunched up and once again Richard had to force himself not to laugh at her. He had, just like everyone else in their group, learned that she wasn’t a fan of her natural hair color and had been one of many shifters who told her that she wouldn’t lose a new color after shifting if she did decide to dye it. Initially she had been very excited to learn that information and most of them had thought that she would have rushed out to get that done. The fact that she hadn’t was a bit of a concern for her Ulfric, but he knew that if he was patient and allowed her some time that she would tell him all about it.

“I am for now because I can’t decide what I want to do with it yet,” Alex explained with the same scrunched up, disgusted look on her face that she had previously been wearing. “After seeing Asher’s hair there’s no hope of me ever being called ‘Goldilocks’ again if I go back to being a blond. Anita and Jean-Claude have totally made black a non-option, but it makes me look too much like a Goth, emo-chick anyways and…”

Anita and Jason were now standing in the doorway watching Alex and Richard talk. Richard threw his head back to let out a loud laugh at something Alex had just said. His eyes were still twinkling with more laughter that wanted to escape. Alex didn’t appear to be happy about that response and lightly slapped his chest while whining a fairly loud, “It’s true!” Anita wasn’t really all that annoyed about the playful banter going on between the two of them, but the fact that Alex hadn’t made a move to get off of her Ulfric’s lap while doing so nearly had her seeing red.

“Doesn’t that bother you?” Anita whispered into Jason’s ear while throwing a hand to point at the pair in the salon.

Jason slowly forced his eyes away from the playful scene playing out before hi to look at his friend who sounded extremely upset. The look on his face must have matched the confusion he was feeling because Anita let out an exasperated sigh then added, “She’s sitting on his lap for crying out loud.”

A sly smile slowly spread across his face as he tried to wrap his arms around her shoulders to give her a hug. Anita promptly pushed his arms away and wrapped her own around her torso defensively. Jason took the hint and backed off, but only slightly so that they could keep their voices from carrying.

“Anita there’s nothing to worry about,” he finally answered in a placating tone. He then placed a hand on her shoulder to try to reassure her and was relieved when she didn’t brush him off again. “She thinks of him more like a big brother than anything else. And she’s been trying to embrace the ‘touchy-feely’ side of being a shifter, so I’ve been trying to step back and let her do that in her own way without hovering over her. Plus…”

When Jason trailed off, Anita turned and gave him an unfriendly look asking, “Plus what?”

“Plus I know whose bed she’s going to be in tonight and who she’ll be pleasuring, so I’m not worried at all.”

Anita groaned and smiled despite herself as she said, “Jason, you’re terrible.”

“And your eyes? Still no colored contacts for you?” Richard asked as Alex moved off of his lap to sit cross-legged beside him on the couch.

She had turned so that she was facing him and left him enough room so that he could shift to face her as well. Once they were both settled and comfortably making eye contact, Alex reached out and took Richard’s left hand into both of hers. She then started to pet the back of his hand and his forearm to show him that her moving off his lap wasn’t a form of rejection in any way.

“No… I’m thinking of actually keeping them _au naturel_. In fact when I finally do get my lazy ass into a salon, I might actually use them as the inspiration for my new hair color.”

Richard stilled her hand and gently reprimanded her saying, “Raya you are many things, but lazy definitely isn’t one of them.”

The younger werewolf blushed and said, “Thanks. I had thought about ordering new contacts, but after living here for a bit I’ve come to realize that I really don’t need to waste my money. I mean I know my eyes are weird, but have you seen some of the weretigers’? Hell Nathaniel’s eyes are such a vibrant purple that they look totally fake to me.”  Richard remained silent and just allowed Alex to enjoy her excitement. “You know Richard, all my life my eyes embarrassed me and made me feel like an outsider, but here… here they actually help me to fit in. That’s kind of a weird thought to me still, but I like the idea of getting used to it being true.”

“Raya,” Richard sighed out as he leaned forward to pull her into another tight hug. “Raya… I mean Alex, don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re still new to being a shifter and no one will argue that your first year was a rough one. No one should have to deal with the changes on their own like you did.”

Alex squeezed Richard’s torso as tightly as she could in appreciation. Although she tried to will her grateful tears away, they could still be heard as she whispered, “Thank you Ulfric.”

Hearing her call him ‘Ulfric’ instead of ‘Richard’ caused the older werewolf to feel a slight ache in his heart. He knew that she hadn’t said it to be distant or impersonal, instead she used it to show her respect for him and his station. After their initial meeting in St. Louis, Richard had taken Alex out for a hike, just the two of them alone, so that they could talk about some things that they had already discussed when they were in Tennessee. This time, however, he was able to be completely open and honest with her. During that hike he quickly learned that Alex would use his title whenever she felt overwhelmed by her emotions and so far all of those moments had always been on a positive note.

In an effort to ease away the tears he had heard creeping into her voice, Richard kept Alex close to his chest so that he could run his hands up and down her back to comfort her. She let out a heavy sigh and let herself relax against him. With every day she spent in St. Louis she was truly grateful that she had survived the last year and had not allowed herself to succumb to the sorrow, self-doubt, self-destruction that had nearly over taken her during the time she spent while in hiding. She hadn’t told anyone that when she was being beaten by the ‘kind gentlemen’ who had offered her a ride that she had resigned herself to the fact that that would definitely be finally put an end to her life’s journey. She had nearly said an actual prayer, even though she knew it was pointless, and had made her peace with the universe. In the end she had just been content that she wasn’t going to be the one that would end her life. For some reason that had been of the utmost importance to her.

But then she had made it to St. Louis and man how her outlook on life had changed. So many things had returned to relative normal while others had become more complicated. She was in a relationship now and wanted nothing more than to call all of her friends in Seattle to tell them about it, but she knew that she couldn’t. She was finally starting to believe that she possessed some level of psychic power, but she still hadn’t mastered her control over it. That was one of the things she and Richard had worked on during their hike, but once she focused her attention on the restaurant, her lessons with him had fallen to the wayside. Thankfully she had found a weretiger sous-chef whose talent was to calm a person’s anxiety so her lack of control over her psychic power had yet to become an issue in the kitchen. Thinks finally felt like they were falling into place and she was hoping to fall into a less time consuming routine soon so that she could spend more time with the friends she had made here and strengthen the bonds they had already established.

After she had repositioned her head so that her cheek was pressed against the left side of his chest, Alex let out another sigh then started to say, “You know, I’ve heard that there’s a salon that ---”

Alex’s statement was abruptly cut-off by someone loudly clearing their throat with an even louder, “Ahem!”

The young werewolf immediately tried to move out of her Ulfric’s embrace, but his hold remained steadfast and she barely moved an inch away from him. As he tightened his hold on her body, Richard also shifted her slight body so that he was partially shielding her. Although way, way, way deep down somewhere inside he knew that what he was doing could be considered spiteful and childish, for some reason he chose not to acknowledge it. He and Anita had established a pattern of hurting each other both consciously and sub-consciously for so many years that it had almost become a habit for them. They were both trying to kick that habit, but it was too easy and familiar so sometimes it reared its ugly head even when they hadn’t meant to do so.

“I hope we aren’t interrupting anything,” Anita quipped with an audible bite.

Richard could feel Alex shivering in his arms so he did let up his hold a bit as he replied, “It’s nothing at all Anita, just an Ulfric having a heart to heart with one of his young wolves.”

Hearing his reply helped Alex to remain calm and she relaxed against him once again. She could tell that her Lupa was somewhat upset and didn’t want to do anything to draw her attention directly to herself. Her Ulfric appeared to be fine with shielding her (physically and verbally) so she was content to let him do it. Normally Alex was more assertive and would have been more than a little annoyed at someone, well more specifically a male, playing the role of protector for her, but for some reason this didn’t hold true when it came to Anita. From the first day that she arrived in St. Louis Alex couldn’t stop picturing the petite, raven haired woman in anything but her role as ‘The Executioner’ and what that ultimately could mean for her own safety and longevity.

Alex kept herself pressed against Richard’s broad chest as she whispered, “What should I do? Do I apologize to her even though we weren’t doing anything wrong?”

Before Richard could reply, they both heard Jean-Claude call out, “ _Bien sûr_ , it’s always wonderful to see one of our leaders take some time to give one of their own some one on one attention. We must never forget that those who are under our protection need us to guard more than just their bodies to ensure their safety.”

He then turned his attention to Alex who was now seated beside Richard with her hands clenched tightly together in her lap. Richard had his arm draped loosely around her shoulders, but that appeared to do very little to ease her anxiety. Jean-Claude took notice of her demeanor and tried to project an even stronger calming vibe to the entire room. All of the werewolves in the room shivered when they felt his press of power and appeared to relax somewhat in their place. Well, all of the werewolves did except for one. Richard actually appeared to tense up in his spot when the vampire’s energy touched his own, but the Master of the City did his best not to pay any heed to it and kept his attention focused on the woman that the Ulfric now held tightly with one arm around her shoulders.

“ _Tout va bien ma gamine_? If you do not mind me saying so, you look extremely uncomfortable and tired. Is everything alright our little pup?”

Alex started to nod very quickly before she forced herself to stop. She then closed her eyes, turned her head so that her nose was pressed deeply into Richard’s shoulder and took in a long, deep breath. Everyone in the room understood what she was doing, so they all remained silent and stationary while they waited patiently for her to calm herself down enough to speak.

When she turned back towards Jean-Claude, Alex had a bit of a dreamy smile on her face as she replied, “ _Ça va bien mon maître_ , everything is fine. In fact everything is going very well. I may have worked a little too long today and may have neglected my diet, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t looking my best right now.” The vampire’s face contorted into one of concern and worry causing Alex to laugh self-consciously as she added, “No, seriously it’s actually a good thing. Things have been going so well with training the kitchen staff that I got so wrapped up in working with them that I forgot to eat today. It’s stupid to do, believe me I know, so I’m going to make sure to mention it to Opal so that she’ll be sure to remind me to at least eat before something regrettable can happen.”

Jean-Claude’s lips spread into a wide smile and his whole body settled in his place to make him look like he was actually relaxed. After issuing a beautiful, humor-filled laugh of his own, Jean-Claude let his eyes find Anita as he replied, “Yes, we most definitely have had some experience with people who have a tendency to allow themselves to get consumed by their work.” He then turned his eyes back to Alex finishing, “And neglecting their diet, as you described it.”

Anita was standing there with her arms crossed over her stomach looking thoroughly unimpressed as she replied, “And I’ve gotten much better about not doing that. Now, can we get this meeting started so that I can attempt to make it to the appointments I have tonight?”

Jean-Claude glided over to Anita’s side and gently took her right hand into his own. She watched him suspiciously as he carefully unwound it from her body and lifted it to his face. He kept his gaze locked with her own as he lowered his lips and placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand. The moment his lips connected with her flesh an involuntary shiver ran up her spine causing Alex to gasp out an astonished “Wow”.

All eyes turned to the now embarrassed looking werewolf. Alex shrunk back in her place and very meekly apologized saying, “I’m sorry, it’s just… I uhh… you two are just amazing together. I’m sorry that I interrupted your moment there, I didn’t mean… anyways… my vote is with my Lupa… you know about starting the meeting and yeah… I’ll… I’ll just shut up now.”

Everyone, including the bodyguards and Anita, cracked a smile at Alex’s awkwardness and apparent naïveté. Jean-Claude laughed once again then said, “Very true, _tu as raison_ , you are correct. Once we have all settled in our seats I shall begin our discussion.”

Anita turned towards the plush white couch that had been moved so that it was directly across from where Alex and Richard remained seated with a large glass coffee table sitting between them. Alex watched as everyone found their seat and the bodyguards settled into their places around the room and started to wonder if she should move. It appeared that everyone had a specific place where they stationed themselves and she silently worried that she was in someone’s ‘spot’ and that she should at least offer to move.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice that Jason had broken away from the group on the other side of the table and was moving towards her. Initially he had started to sit down on the floor by Jean-Claude’s feet, but then he saw the look of uncertainty on Alex’s face. First he silently got permission from the Master of the City to move to the other side of the room and once that was granted he made his way to her side. He exchanged a look with Richard who appeared annoyed at first, but then he nodded and moved his arm off of Alex’s shoulders and moved a few inches away from her to make room for the other werewolf.

Alex was chewing her bottom lip and was so lost in her thoughts that she actually jumped when Jason touched her hand to get her attention after he sat down next to her. He smiled softly and slipped his arm around her waist to hug her against his side saying, “If this was a formal meeting you would have had to greet everyone and moved from being beside our Ulfric. Since it’s actually an informal get together, everyone just sits wherever they feel most comfortable, so you’re fine where you are unless you want to move.”

Alex let out a relieved sigh and rested her head on Jason’s left shoulder. She knew there was some history between her boyfriend and her Ulfric that caused there to be a great deal of tension between them so she reached out with her left hand to grasp Richard’s arm. She knew that he most likely didn’t want to stay sitting next to her on the couch now that Jason had joined them, but she as grateful that he stayed and tried her best to how him the best way that she could.

She then shook her head with it still resting against Jason’s shoulder and replied, “No, no I’m fine right here where I am.”

“ _Bon_ , now that we are all comfortable,” Jean-Claude started in a fairly formal tone. “Earlier you were saying that training has been going well with your kitchen staff _ma gamine_ , can I assume that means that everything is on schedule for the Grand Opening date that we have chosen?”

Alex sat up straighter, but made sure to keep some physical contact with the two male lycanthropes seated on each side of her. “You most definitely can make that assumption because it’s the truth. Gina has really fit in better than I had expected in her role as General Manager which has made preparations go a lot smoother. Opal has been a godsend because she’s been able to work with the kitchen staff without me having to be there so that helped to speed things up quite a bit as well.”

“ _Merveilleux_ , that’s wonderful news,” Jean-Claude praised with a bright smile on his face. “And the Grand Opening Event itself?”

“Gina should have contacted yourself, Asher, Anita and Richard to get the names of everyone that you would like to have invitations sent to be our guests,” Alex answered somewhat nervously. “She’s done that, hasn’t she?”

Richard move his hand so that he was now more securely holding her hand. Alex turned her head so that she could see his face. When he saw the panic in her eyes, he started petting her hand and forearm while maintaining a tight grasp of her left hand in his right hand.

“Raya, it’s alright. Yes, she has contacted us all,” the Ulfric replied in a quiet soothing voice.

“ _Ma gamine, je suis désolé_ _,_ my apologies. I did not mean to panic you so,” Jean-Claude said with a truly contrite tone. “Yes, she has contacted us all as well as extending invitations to each of us on your behalf. I was very impressed with the names you had included on your personal guest list because I had not thought to include guests such as Dr. Lillian or Buzz.”

Alex blushed as she meekly said, “I… uhh… I wanted to do that as a ‘Thank You’ to them. I know we wouldn’t be sitting here today if it wasn’t for Dr. Lillian. I may have survived my injuries, but there’s no way that I would have been able to get back into the kitchen if she hadn’t fixed my leg.”

“ _Bien sûr_ _,_ very well thought out. Now what I meant to ask was, have you completed the menu for the event? I know Gina has worked with Asher in regard to the _décor_ and other arrangements, but she very politely stressed that the menu was not one of the areas for which she was to make any decisions. How did she say it? Ah _oui_ … ‘Chef Alex will decide on the food, I will just choose the font to use when we have the menus printed.’”

Again Alex blushed profusely causing a soft ripple of laughter to flow through the group. They could have a laugh at her expense because they all knew that Alex’s statement wouldn’t have sounded as polite when she initially said it to her assistant.

“Opal and I almost have it finalized. I had hoped to send them to the printers today, but then the crew and I started doing some experimenting and I would really like to add in some of the staff suggestions from today to our final menu.”

Everyone knew how possessive Alex was of her recipes and anything to do with the kitchen so this news shocked them somewhat. Jean-Claude, Asher and the security staff were the first to school their faces to hide this fact. Alex did a quick survey of everyone’s expressions and couldn’t help but to sputter out her own soft laugh.

“Yeah, I know I’m a control freak… but everyone keeps that I have a fresh start here. I’ve decided that since I get to start anew that I’m going to make the best of it which means changing some of my old habits. Now Jean-Claude I don’t want you to worry. Even though it sounds like I’m being wishy-washy, I’ve confirmed with the printers that we’re not pushing our luck with the printing dead-line yet. We still have a comfortable amount of time to ensure that everything and everyone is ready for the Grand Opening.”

“ _Très bien_ _,_ very good. I have no fear that you will have all of the preparations completed in a timely manner,” Jean-Claude replied with a smile still spread across his face.

The Master of the City then remained silent for a couple of breaths. The level of tension in the room rose with every second that the vampire remained silent. He knew that that would be the case, especially for their newest werewolf, so he opened the links between himself and her Ulfric to psychically request that he help to keep her calm. At first Richard resisted the ‘intrusion’, but he almost immediately relented because he was sure that it had something to do with the young werewolf beside him. Jean-Claude then shared some of his power through Richard to try to help to comfort Alex. However, he hadn’t opened his links to Anita so she was left in the dark and watched the two males suspiciously while trying to keep herself from getting angry.

Because of his ties with Jean-Claude and Anita, Jason could feel that something was different about Jean-Claude and Richard, so he tightened his hold around Alex’s waist. Although Richard was feeling somewhat uncomfortable about having Jean-Claude in his head and his close proximity to Jason, Richard shifted his position on the couch so that he could wrap an arm around Alex’s shoulders. That meant that he also had his hand across Jason’s back as well, but that didn’t matter to him. All that mattered was that Alex could feel that they were there to support her and comfort her.

Alex could feel and smell that something had changed in the room, so she turned her head to try to look at her boyfriend and her Ulfric. They were holding her too tightly for her to see their faces. That in and of itself caused her to feel slightly panicked. She then turned her eyes towards the Master of the City and swallowed hard as she tried to keep herself calm. She knew that he was capable of going so utterly still in his place that he looked like he was made of stone but he rarely did that around her. That plus him keeping his face completely blank caused her heart rate to speed up and her breaths to quick and become very shallow.

“What…? Wh-what is it?” Alex managed to stutter out as she started to hyperventilate. “It… it can’t… what’s…? I mean is… is something… wrong?”

Although he didn’t require oxygen to survive, Jean-Claude looked like he let out a breath as he tried to relax in his spot answering, “ _Non ma gamine,_ nothing is wrong. However, you are correct that what I have to share with you may not be considered happy or joyous news.”

“Does…? Does it have to do with the restaurant?”

Jean-Claude took a moment to ponder her question before smiling softly as he replied, “ _Oui, un tout petit peu._ ”

“A little bit?” Alex repeated sounding thoroughly confused. “What does…? I mean, may I inquire about the meaning behind that answer _mon maître_?”

“ _Bien sûr ma gamine_ _,_ of course I will explain. After our press conference where I announced the opening date of our new enterprise I received a rather odd phone call.”

Alex was now seated on the edge of the couch listening to Jean-Claude very intently. When he didn’t look like he was going to say anything else, she said just barely over a whisper, no sure if she wanted to hear his response, “Who was the phone call from?”

Although he hadn’t meant to worry Alex, Jean-Claude did have a flair for the dramatic and enjoyed exercising that trait whenever he had the chance. “ _C’était le maître de ville de_ _…_ Seattle.”

Alex gasped and even though most of the other people present were not fluent in French, they didn’t require a translation to understand her reaction. Jason and Richard both moved a hand to Alex’s back and started rubbing soothing circles across it at the same time. Anita watched them for a moment and once she was satisfied that Alex wasn’t going to have a complete meltdown of some kind she turned her now angry eyes towards Jean-Claude.

It had only been a couple of days since the press conference that he referenced, but Anita was well on her way to being thoroughly pissed off at the vampire sitting beside her. Even though they had all been busy with their jobs as well as their parts for the Grand Opening, she was sure that Jean-Claude could have found a minute or two to have shared this news with her in advance. He had to have known that this news was going to be upsetting to Alex, so it would have been nice to have had time to properly prepare. Damien quickly recognized the look on Anita’s face and used his other-worldly speed to move in behind her and gently grasped the back of her neck with his right hand. The instant his hand touched her bare flesh her body gave an involuntary shudder just before she relaxed in her place.

“Thank you,” she whispered to her vampire servant as she raised her left hand to hold his forearm.

Alex’s eyes remained laser focused on the Master of the City as she very quietly asked, “ _Qu’est-ce qu’il veut_?”

Jean-Claude smiled softly and gave a slight nod to Jason and Richard. Although he hadn’t communicated with either werewolf at all, they both seemed to know what he was requesting of them. Very gently they both pulled Alex back into their unnaturally warm embraces. Richard pressed her body a little more firmly into Jason’s side, so he hugged her more closely to him as he gave Richard a grateful smile.

While they were doing that, Alex’s gaze never strayed, nor did Jean-Claude’s. Still maintaining painfully direct eye contact, Jean-Claude replied, “He was not calling with a request for himself.” Before Alex could jump in with her question that he could see light up her eyes, Jean-Claude raised a silencing hand and continued, “He was calling on behalf of the Ulfric of the Rainwater Clan to request an invitation to our Grand Opening festivities. Since they still consider you a member of their clan, he stated that your ‘Ulfric’ felt slightly jilted that he had not received one or any word of it before my press conference.”

“What the hell?”

Everyone’s gaze turned towards Anita, but she jutted her chin towards Alex who was the actual originator of that angry outburst. She was still snuggled into Jason’s side with Richard’s hand running up and down her thigh trying to comfort her. This time however she did not look scared or intimidated, instead she just looked angry and annoyed.

“Why didn’t the Ulfric call you himself to make his ludicrous demand? I mean, seriously who do they think they are trying to hone in on our party like that?” Alex finally asked without directing her heated words at anyone in particular.

“Normally he would have contacted the Ulfric of our local pack to speak to him, but the true leader of the Thronnos Rokke Clan still remains to most everybody outside of our fair city.”

That comment got Richard’s attention which caused him to stop comforting Alex so that he could give the vampire seated across from his the full weight of his glare.

“That’s not fair Jean-Claude, you know why I haven’t come out publically about who I am. Not to mention that even though my identity isn’t commonly known outside of St. Louis, that’s doesn’t mean that I neglect my duties in anyway. You know that I’ve been trying really hard to ---”

“ _Mon ami, mon ami,_ I did not mean it as an insult. I was just merely answering our young wolf’s question,” Jean-Claude interrupted with a placating tone. “Now as I was saying, since your ‘Ulfric’ could not call our Ulfric, he requested that Theodore make the inquiry on his behalf. The Seattle Master also pointed out that since I was to majority proprietor as well as the Master of the City and the new head of the American counsel that it made perfect sense that he call myself. He also wanted it noted that your Ulfric and your pack have been quite worried about you since your disappearance and that they are very excited to be reunited with you.”

The look on Jean-Claude’s face caused a cold shiver to run down Alex’s spine. She then nuzzled in closer to Jason’s side and asked, “Why do you keep saying that? I mean, why do you keep calling him ‘my Ulfric’ and saying that they’re ‘my pack’? I’m a member of the Thronnos Rokke Clan…” She reached out and grabbed Richard’s hand and held onto it for dear life. “Richard is my Ulfric and I’m under his protection… aren’t I?”

Richard turned to look at the now terrified werewolf to say, “Yes you are Raya, on both counts.” Without taking his eyes off of her he said to Jean-Claude, “And I was wondering the same thing. Everyone knows that Alex is one of my wolves, so why DO you keep referring to the Seattle pack as you have been?”

“I was not trying to infer that that was not the case _mon ami_ ,” Jean-Claude replied, allowing some heat to enter his tone. “I was simply repeating what was said to me. They believe that since our Alex was turned by a member of their pack that she is still a member of the Rainwater Clan.”

“But you corrected them about that, right?” Anita asked before anyone else had the chance.

Jean-Claude gave her a look that showed that he was mildly offended that she would ask such a thing as he answered, “ _Mais oui, ma petite_ _,_ of course I corrected him, numerous times. But much like myself he was just repeating the sentiment of the Ulfric of the pack that is tied to his kiss. Since we are not leaders of either of the werewolf packs we do not get to decide where Alex’s loyalties will lie, not matter what our feelings may be about the topic.”

“Alright, so have to have a Pow Wow with the Ulfric from the Seattle Pack,” Anita commented sounding less annoyed, but still very urgent because she wanted to get this meeting over and done with as promptly as possible. “But please tell me that doesn’t mean they’re getting an invitation to your ultra-exclusive, invitation only, no exceptions gala.”

Alex’s still uncertain and fearful eyes jump from her Lupa to the Master of the City, but she remained mute. Once Richard and Anita had jumped in to defend her, Alex lost most of her bravado. In the back of her mind she did want to ask the same questions Anita had and more but something kept her frozen in her place and absolutely silent.

Jean-Claude kept his eyes trained on Alex as he answered Anita’s questions, “ _Non ma petite_ , this small misunderstanding has not afforded them such an invitation.” He paused there because he could see the question he was going to answer next jumped into everyone’s eyes. Well everyone except for Alex, she looked like she was practically catatonic in her place and not like she was entirely able to digest everything that was being said. “I’ve explained to them that we will all be quite busy prior to and during the Grand Opening of ‘Tasty Morsels’ and that it would be a disservice to them and the very important topic we need to discuss for them to visit during that time.”

Alex started shivering against Jason’s side. He started running his hand up and down her ram to try to warm her up. When it appeared that his efforts had absolutely no effect on eliminating her apparent hypothermia, he had an idea pop into his head about what was actually causing her shivering.

Keeping Alex close to his side, Jason leaned in towards the larger werewolf seated on the other side of Alex to whisper, “Ulfric, Alex is nearly frozen and I don’t think it has anything to do with the temperature in the room.”

Richard quickly turned his head to look into Jason’s worried face as he moved his hand to Alex’s side. He then moved in closer to her side and tried to share some of the heat from his unnaturally warm body. Jason relented some of his hold on his girlfriend because he knew that he didn’t have the psychic ability to offer Alex the comfort and protection she required at this time.

Alex continued to shiver uncontrollably even with the combined heat of her boyfriend and Ulfric, so Richard claimed more of her body to press it against his own. Jason relinquished her weight immediately to Richard without a word or moment of hesitation.

Richard was settling Alex into his lap so that he could wrap her in his warmth physically and psychically at the same time that he heard a quiet, uncertain voice ask, “When?”

It took everyone a second or two to realize that the question had come from the petite werewolf who was now nestled on her Ulfric’s lap. Jean-Claude and Anita gave Richard a look of expectation because they assumed that he would be the best on to get her to clarify her question.

Richard didn’t meet any of their gazes as he quietly asked, “Raya? I… I don’t think we all heard what you just asked… Raya, could you repeat your question?”

“When?” She questioned just as quietly as she had previously. “When will they be here Ulfric?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered against the side of her head he hugged her into his chest. Richard then whispered a few sentences against Alex’s hair which actually seemed to help her to relax against his body. He helped her to settle in closer to him when he directed his next question to the vampire seated across from him, “I second Raya’s question… when did you invite them to come for this visit Jean-Claude?”

The Master of the City inclined his head and then answered, “An exact date will be determined once our negotiations are completed.”

Richard could actually feel Alex’s brows furrow in a look of confusion, so he asked, “What are you needing to negotiate with them?”

“ _Mon ami_ it is not anything unusual. These are the same negotiations that I complete whenever I travel into another Master’s territory or when one visits ours. There are many things that need to be agreed upon such as the size of his entourage and how many pack members may accompany their Ulfric.”

Alex’s shivering subsided substantially with Richard sharing his power with her. She snuggled in closer to him and pulled his arms even more tightly around herself like a security blanket.

“I… I just… I don’t understand,” she stuttered out quietly.

“ _Ma gamine_ it is just a formality we Masters go through when we travel,” Jean-Claude replied in a soft, placating tone.

Alex shook her head then tried to clarify her statement. “No, no not that. I… I just… why is Theodore all of the sudden concerned about Stanley and his pack now? They had nothing to do with each other when I was in Seattle, why does he care enough now to call on the Ulfric’s behalf?”

Everyone’s eyes moved from Alex to Jean-Claude while they awaited his reply. Alex had been very open about her lack of knowledge of vampire dynamics because she hadn’t had a chance to spend much time with the kiss in Seattle. Of course none of them had remembered that factoid until Alex had just reminded them.

"Stanley? _Non, ma gamine,_ the Ulfric of the Rainwater Clan is called Griff."

Jean-Claude stopped there because he saw Alex visibly pale. Her shivering returned with a vengeance as she shook her head absentmindedly.

“No, Griff was Stanley’s Skoll, he… he wasn’t even their Geri… How…? How did he go from Skoll to Fenrir to Ulfric so fast?”

“Determination,” a voice answered behind her.

With Alex still held tightly in his arms, Richard turned in his lace to glare at the owner of the voice. He let out a pulse of power to match his anger as he growled out an annoyed, “Graham!”

The werewolf security guard fell to his knees with a quick apology on his lips, “I’m sorry Ulfric, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to over-step. I’m so very sorry Ulfric.”

“It’s fine Graham, just don’t let it happen again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Richard then turned back in his seat and shifted Alex in his lap so that they both would be more comfortable. He caught Anita opening her mouth to say something to the werewolf that had just spoken out of turn. Quickly he gave her a pleading look then telepathically said _Please don’t Anita. I’m his Ulfric and I’ve already forgiven him._

 _And I’m his Bolverk and he needs to learn his place_ Anita responded.

 _And what? You’re going to kill him for saying something every single one of us were thinking?_ Richard retorted with a look that matched the heat in his tone. Anita gaped slightly at that so Richard softened his face and tone to add, _If you want to reprimand him, please do it later. Right now I’d rather we focus our energy on Raya. She’s shaking like a leaf right now and feels like she on the verge of becoming completely terrified._

Anita frowned her discontent but simply nodded her head in begrudged agreement. Jean-Claude had been able to listen in on their back and forth so he waited until Richard and Anita were finished before he answered Alex’s question.

“Again Theodore is not privy to the Pack’s inner politics, so that can be one of the many things we can discuss with them when they are here. That is if you would like us to add it to the agenda?”

Alex had reached out a hand to Jason who took it and moved closer to Richard’s side where she was still curled up protectively in the larger man’s lap. Ash she clung to Jason’s hand, Alex rubbed her cheek against Richard’s chest and replied, “ _Oui mon maître._ I would like you to find out about that very much. Thank you.”

“Very well, I’ll be sure to make that inquire. Now for the main reason that I called this meeting.”

“There’s more?” Anita asked sounding more concerned than annoyed.

“ _Oui ma petite,_ there definitely is and I must say that this is the topic that has caused me the most reasons for concern.”

Everyone sat in an uncomfortable silence until Richard quietly asked, “What is it Jean-Claude?”

Jean-Claude looked like he took a breath to brace himself for what he was going to say next which caused practically everyone in the room to tense up. “Theodore was quite insistent that Griff wanted to be sure that our introductions would include a formal greet between all of the two Packs’ members.” He gave everyone a moment to digest that information. “Since it is customary for new groups to greet each other formally the first time they meet, I made sure to question Theodore as to why he would be sure to highlight that request.”

“And what was his reply?” Asher asked from his post standing to Jean-Claude’s right hand side.

The raven haired vampire reached out to take the hand of his second in command. He knew that Asher and Alex had been spending a lot of time together at the restaurant (and that Alex had even let Asher feed from her on occasion) and that Asher had grown quite fond of the newest member of their group. The vampires had not had a chance or desire to discuss this revelation, but the tenderness in Asher’s tone made it more than evident to Jean-Claude that Alex had become special to him.

“He stated that much like his phone call, the request was just a ‘pass-on’ from his Ulfric. He was not aware as to why, only that Griff had insisted quite emphatically that Theodore confirm that that would be a part of their trip. I assure you that part of the negotiations will include finding out why this is so important to their Ulfric.”

“ _Bon… bon.._.” Asher muttered, sounding like he was speaking only to himself.

Alex shuddered in a breath which caused all eyes to focus on her, “I can’t… I don’t want to touch any of them.”

“Alex,” Jason whispered with his chin on her shoulder that wasn’t pressed against Richard’s chest. “You’re strong, you know you are… so you don’t have to be submissive all the time. But if you go against their Ulfric, you have to be ready to fight him. Don’t forget you have to ask yourself if you’re ready for that.”

“No… no… Unless…” She lifted her head ever so slightly so that she could look at Jason over her shoulder as she asked. “Can we have a cook off instead of a duel to the death?”

Alex’s question caught everyone off guard for a moment. Richard was the first to recover and he let out a boisterous laugh as he hugged her tightly. “Sorry Raya, no can do, tradition dictates that it is always a death match to decide the new Ulfric.”

Since she was able to make a joke Richard figured that Alex had recovered from whatever had caused her to breakdown just a few moments earlier. He gave her one last squeeze and then gently passed her back to Jason’s care. The young blond wolf gave their Ulfric a grateful smile and then wrapped Alex into his embrace.

“ _Ma gamine, je suis désolé_ _,_ but I do believe that that will be the most difficult part of their visit with us for you. That is if I do permit them to visit our fair city,” Jean-Claude replied.

Anita stood up and walked around the coffee table without speaking a single word. Once she was standing in front of Alex, she gently cupped her chin in her hand and lifted it up slightly so that they could make eye contact. The sadness and fear Anita could see in her eyes almost made her heart break, but she made sure not to let the young wolf see that right now. Later she could show Alex her vulnerable side, but right now she needed her and everyone else that was a leader of a group in the room to be strong, so that was exactly what Anita would be right now.

“And never forget Alex, you have all of us to help to protect you. We won’t force you to do anything that will make you feel totally uncomfortable, okay? All you have to do is say the word and one of us will do whatever we can to help you, understood?”

“Yes ma’am, I understand. Thank you, Lupa,” Alex answered with grateful tears sparkling in her eyes.

Anita gave her a tight smile as she discretely checked the time on her wristwatch once again. Richard caught that action out of the corner of his eye so he reached out to grab her forearm. For a brief second she went completely rigid under his touch, so he quickly released her arm.

“If you need to go, then go. I think we’ve got it covered from here,” Richard offered with a soft smile. Suddenly he realized his faux pas and turned his contrite eyes to Jean-Claude to say, “That is if we’ve discussed everything that you had planned on discussing with us Jean-Claud.”

“Yes, _mon ami_ , I have raised all of the important topics of concern already. _Ma petite,_ if you need to leave for work, then please do not let us delay you any further.”

Anita looked over her shoulder and gave him a warm smile. For a brief moment she contemplated if she should walk back to the other couch and give each of her ‘men’ a kiss goodbye. That seemed like a good idea, but in reality that would take too long, so she opted to just blow a kiss over her shoulder in all of their general direction. She figured that that way no one would feel left out or slighted.

She then turned back to Alex then said, “And I’m just a phone call away if you need me.”

Alex whispered almost an inaudible ‘Thank you’ while she forced herself to maintain eye contact with her Lupa.

Richard gently grasped Anita’s forearm and said, “I’m pretty sure we’ve got it from here. Have fun at work.”

Anita let out a soft laugh at that comment because everyone knew that this job was less of a ‘want’ to do as much as it was a ‘need’ to do in order to help her maintain her inner balance. Just like she had to fee the _ardeur_ to keep a healthy balance in her life, Anita also had to raise the dead for the same reason. Yes her control of her psychic abilities had improved enough to the point that she no longer became a Pied Piper of the undead, but the concentration it took to reign that ability in caused her to lose focus on other areas of her psychic powers and that was most definitely a recipe for disaster if they went unchecked. The fact that Richard was willing to poke some harmless fun at her told her that he really was trying to get their relationship back on track. That plus the fact that he appeared to take a genuine interest in Alex’s well-being without any strings attached made Anita truly grateful.

Once Anita had made her exit, Jean-Claude stood and straightened the cuffs of his shirt around the cuffs of his coat. “I too must make my exit as well. I told Theodore that we could continue our negotiations tonight and he should be awake by now. I apologize if it feels like I am making a hasty retreat to my office, but it cannot be avoided.”

Alex leapt to her feet and was in front of Jean-Claude in the blink of an eye. “Jean-Claude, I… I…”

“Shh _ma gamine_ , je interrupted as he placed two fingers to her lips. “I know you have been working very long, hard hours and that you must be beyond exhausted. I can only hope that this news will not weigh so heavy on your mind that you will not be able to get a proper night’s sleep.”

Alex blushed then said, “I’ll try not to let it bother me too much, I promise. But either way, thank you Jean-Claude. I know you’ll get to the bottom of all of this, so that’s enough for me right now.”

With a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips, Jean-Claude held bot of Alex’s cheeks to place a soft kiss against her forehead. “ _Je fais toujours de mon mieux pour mon peuple_.”

Alex placed her hands over his and hoarsely replied, “You don’t ‘try’ _mon maître_ , you are doing a great job taking care of all of us.”

Jean-Claude didn’t know how to reply to that, so he opted not to. Instead he kissed her forehead again. He then turned to leave saying “ _Bon nuit_ ” as he left the room.

Alex then turned back to Jason and Richard because they appeared to be the only ones left in the room other than the security guards. (Micah, Nathaniel and Asher left with quiet good byes at the same time as Jean-Claude so that the wolves could deal with their issues in private.)

“So I guess that you need to rush off too, eh Richard?” Alex questioned meekly as she walked back towards him.

Richard let her get close enough that he could reach out and take her hands in his before he replied, “No, I don’t. It’s mid-terms season right now so I don’t have any marking to do until the tests are done. But Raya? I know you’ve probably hear this too much tonight, but I’m going to say it anyways. You look over-tired, so I think that I should leave so that you can get some sleep. But just like Anita, if I can help you with anything, don’t forget that I’m just a phone call away.”

Alex smiled and finally let a couple of grateful tears trickle down her cheeks as she hoarsely replied, “Thank you, Ulfric.”

He then stood and scooped her up into a tight hug. While he held her his arms he turned his head to share a look with Jason. Although their friendship had become strained over the last few years, Richard still worried about Jason more than he did some of the other wolves in his pack because he had considered himself Jason’s protector even before he had defeated Marcus for the leadership of their pack. Now he felt that same kind of responsibility for the wolf he held in his tight embrace and he tried to convey that sentiment to Jason with the look in his eyes.

At first Jason only had eyes for Alex, but after a couple of heartbeats he let his eyes drift up to Richard’s face. He knew how important their Ulfric was to his girlfriend because she had told him about the deep friendship she had forged with him during their time spent together in Tennessee, but now he was happy to find out that the feeling wasn’t one-sided. The look on Richard’s face told Jason that Alex wasn’t just another wolf in the pact that he felt obligated to care for and protect simply because he was the Ulfric. No, the look on Richard’s face told him that Alex was just as precious to him as she was to Jason, even if the definition of precious wasn’t meant in the same way.

In a rare moment of genuine sincerity, Jason gently claimed Alex from Richard while solemnly saying, “I promise I’ll take care of her Ulfric.”

Richard just nodded and remained completely still in his place as he watched Jason walk Alex past the curtain to the corridor that led to the living area below the Circus of the Damned. Once they disappeared from his view, he physically shook out some residual tension from his body. He then gave the hallway to the bedrooms another long, lingering look before he picked up his jacket and forced himself to leave.

 


	12. Chapter 12

 

She had her back facing the door, so Alex didn’t see him enter the room. He kept his footsteps so light that they were completely silent as he made his approach so she didn’t hear him either. He smiled to himself in satisfaction as he crept closer to her because he could tell that she was so distracted that she hadn’t noticed that he had entered the room. She hadn’t even caught a whiff of his scent that he couldn’t manage to mask.

When he wrapped his arms around her waist, Alex jumped and let out a yelp of surprise. Now that she had been made aware that someone else was in the room, his scent nearly overwhelmed her. She frowned then snapped out an almost angry “Jason!” because of her startled state.

Jason suppressed his smile and soft trickle of laughter into Alex’s back between her two shoulder blades. He had already predicted that that would be her reaction to him being there because he knew that it annoyed her when he surprised her like that whenever her mind was preoccupied like it had been just moments ago. He of course had no intention of changing his behavior with her because he argued that she was becoming too serious for her own good, especially when it came to the topic of the opening of her restaurant, and she needed him to do such things to help her maintain a healthy balance in her life.

Alex could feel Jason’s laughter vibrate through her torso and all of her muscles started to relax in its wake. She let out a heavy sigh to force any residual tension out of her body as she turned her head to press her nose into the side of his face now that he had his chin resting on her shoulder.

“Jason,” she started in a soft voice. “You promised not to do this anymore. I need to keep myself focused on work when I’m here and you know I can’t do that when you’re this close to me.”

Jason chuckled quietly as he listened to her and watched her turn around in his arms. He kept his arms around her waist and took a step back while Alex let her arms just remain hanging limply at her sides.

When he didn’t reply right away, she started to frown. He couldn’t help but smile as he combed his fingers through her hair while he finally replied, “I know I did and I promise not to embarrass you around your staff tonight. I just wanted to check on how you were holding up. I know you said that you weren’t having to do too much ‘real’ work tonight beyond smiling for the camera and schmoozing with your guest, so I figured that I wouldn’t distract you too much if I checked up on you.”

Alex’s cheeks pinked slightly with a flood of memories of how Jason had ‘distracted’ her in the kitchen of the restaurant on more than one occasion before all of the renovations were complete. Because of their nearly opposite schedules and the extra-long hours Alex was putting in to prepare the kitchen’s staff, Alex and Jason hadn’t had much free time to spend together. That also meant that what little time they did have together usually ended up with both of them naked and sweaty. The reason that Alex was being so cautious about having Jason at the restaurant was that the last time he had visited her that almost inevitable outcome had transpired and they had nearly been caught in the act by her Sous-Chef and right-hand woman, Opal. Since Opal is a weretiger she could hear what she was going to interrupt and diverted her course quickly. I didn’t take Alex long to realize that Opal and some of the other staff were aware of her extra-curricular activities with Jason in her office, so she banned him from visiting ‘Tasty Morsels’ unless he was a patron to avoid being put into a compromising position like that again.

Jason immediately knew what memories were causing Alex to blush so profusely. Although he wanted to tease her more, he restrained himself. Instead he just gave her a quick, chaste kiss on the lips then leaned in and whispered, I really am just checking up on you and I promise no clothes have to come off for me to do that.”

Alex kept her arms limp at her sides, but did lean into Jason’s embrace so that she could place her chin on his shoulder in a modified type of hug.

She let out a heavy sigh as she relaxed in his embrace, but before she could reply they were interrupted by someone calling out, “Hey! Chef Hughes, are you…?”

The nearly six foot tall weretiger who owned the voice stepped through the door and froze in her spot when she saw Alex wrapped in Jason’s arms. As Alex’s Sous-Chef, Opal knew that she was supposed to also run interference for Alex, even when it came to her boyfriend.

As a white weretiger, Opal’s hair was so blond that it looked snow white. To help make herself standout from others in her clan, Opal dyed large chunky streaks of pink, teal, green, blue and yellow throughout her shoulder length locks in a way that mimicked the looks of the stone for which she was named. She had her hair pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, but all of the various colors of her hair were still visible and they practically shimmered under the artificial lighting of the restaurant. She took in the scene before her with her almond shaped, sky blue eyes wide in surprise because she hadn’t expected to find Jason in the ‘Employee Only’ area again after he and Alex had nearly had a blowout shouting match the last time that the weretiger had almost walked in on them in Alex’s office.

Opal quickly diverted her gaze to her hands that were gripping the hem of her sapphire blue chef’s coat and bit her lip to keep from speaking again. Alex frowned sympathetically at the woman standing in the doorway because she understood the other woman’s hesitation, but she also hated it at the same time. Although Opal nearly towered over Alex’s petite frame, the werewolf had displayed enough power and authority in the kitchen to exert her position of leader at the restaurant that no one, Opal included, would do anything to try to undermine her. At one point it had gotten so bad that some of the weres and vampires had become nearly deathly afraid of even trying to speak to Alex, so Opal had finally had a private meeting with the Head Chef to address that issue. It had taken a lot of work and compromise on all of their parts to find a happy medium, but somehow they did and now everyone was working in relative harmony. They all knew it was a delicate balance that could be easily set off course if they weren’t careful. It was with that sentiment in mind that Opal forced herself to take a moment in silence to try to find the right words to address Alex so that she wouldn’t annoy or anger her boss by there being any room for misinterpretation of what she meant to say.

With her eyes still cast down to her hands, Opal very quietly apologized saying, “Chef I didn’t mean to interrupt… I was just checking in on you per your instructions.”

Jason let out a soft chuckle as he replied, “You weren’t interrupting anything salacious Opal. I was just doing the same thing as you, except I’m doing it against the good Chef’s wishes.”

At that response, Opal finally turned her eyes up to the couple in the room. At seeing Jason’s usual teasing smile she relaxed in her place. He had moved so that he was now standing beside Alex with his arm wrapped around her waist. Alex still had an uncertain look on her face and her arms hanging limply at her sides. It wasn’t often that Opal caught Alex with that look on her face, and even those times it had only been in private, so Opal knew that something must be wrong.

“Chef…? Boss…? Is everything alright?” Opal quietly asked as she took a couple of tentative steps towards Alex.

Jason kept his arm wrapped loosely around Alex’s hips as he took a small step away from her so that he could see her face. Opal continued to approach them slowly and carefully. She looked like she was approaching a wild animal she didn’t want to spook and the instant Jason saw Alex’s face he understood why.

After giving her waist a gentle squeeze, he whispered out a worried, “Alex?”

She didn’t make eye contact with either of them. Her bottom lip started to tremble and both of the other wereanimals could hear the tears in her voice when she finally said, “I… I… I can’t… I can’t do this…”

“Alex, yes you can,” Jason replied automatically as he moved both of his hands to her shoulders so that he could turn her body so that they were facing each other. When she still refused to make eye contact, he shook her gently. “Alex this is just like it was before. You said it yourself, a restaurant is a restaurant no matter where you where you set it up. All you have to do is cook the best meals you customers have tasted and the rest will sort itself out.”

“No,” she mumbled more to herself than an actual reply to Jason’s words of encouragement. “This isn’t working out at all.”

Jason opened his mouth to speak again, but he was quickly silenced by Opal gently tugging on his shoulder. She answered his confused frown with an encouraging smile. He wasn’t sure what she planned to say or do, but he still took a large step back and away from Alex so that the weretiger could take his place in front of his girlfriend.

“Chef?” Opal tried again in the same careful tone she had used previously. “Chef we have everyone trained u and prepared as much as anyone could hope to be when opening a new place. We’re all ready for tonight, I promise you that we are.”

Alex continued to shake her head as if she wasn’t actually hearing a word her Sous-Chef was saying. Opal and Jason both opened their mouths to speak, but they were both silenced by Alex repeating, “No… I… I can’t…” She then raised her right hand saying, “I can’t do THIS.”

Jason frowned and still didn’t seem to understand what Alex was trying to tell them. It only took seeing the make-up brush that Alex was holding for Opal to understand what it was that had her boss so perplexed.

The weretiger turned to Jason and discreetly waved him off and whispered, “I’ve got this Jay. Why don’t you head out and keep everyone entertained while I get Alex ready for the big reveal?”

Still feeling uncertain and wary, Jason nodded because at the end of the day he trusted Opal almost as much as Alex did and he knew she had Alex’s best interest at heart. Before leaving he quickly pecked Alex on the cheek and then said to both of them, “You know where to find me if you need me.”

Alex didn’t acknowledge that he had spoken because she was focusing all of her energy on keeping herself from completely melting down. Opal gave him a soft smile answering, “Thanks, but I think I’ve got it from here.”

Although he knew there wasn’t really anything else that he could do to help Alex, Jason still lingered by the door and watched the two women for a moment or two. Opal remained solely focused on Alex as she gently pried the makeup brush out of her hand. Alex’s eyes started to water as Opal rearranged a few of the containers of eye shadow on the counter beside her, but somehow she managed to keep her tears from falling.

“So what is it that you’re having the most problems with Boss?” Opal asked in an almost jovial town with her back still turned to Alex.

Since Opal was using such an upbeat tone, Alex took a deep breath to calm herself down before replying. If anyone was going to be able to help her solve her problem she was certain that Opal was her woman. Even if she couldn’t solve it completely, Alex knew that her Sous-Chef would be able to come up with an acceptable alternative. Either way, her potential crisis would be averted none the less and Alex could let herself feel calm about that.

She then turned so that she was standing at Opal’s side looking down at the makeup Stephen and Nathaniel had helped her buy and finally replied, “I had no problem with the foundation, but when I tried doing my eyeshadow it just came out all wrong. I’ve tried three times now and it just hasn’t looked right, so I washed it off again.”

“Okay, eyeshadow is being bothersome. Would you mind expanding on that explanation Chef? In what way has it not looked right to you?”

After letting out a long sigh, Alex picked up one small rectangular container of eyeshadow saying, “Both Stephen and Nathaniel said that this purple would be a good color for me to wear to help bring out some of the brown in my eyes, especially now that I’ve gotten my hair dyed and all.”

Opal remained silent for a couple of seconds because she was waiting for Alex to finish her thought. When the werewolf remained silent, Opal said, “I’ve heard a lot of people say that too. Personally I say wear whatever color makes you feel your most beautiful. Oh and if I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m really glad you decided to keep your hair brown. I think it really suits you, especially with all of the golden and grey highlights that they threw in. It looks really great on you.”

Alex blushed at the compliment. “Thanks. Amy asked for some pictures of my wolf form and she tried to mimic that coloring as much as she possibly could. As for the eyeshadow color… this is the one that Stephen tried to teach me with so…”

“Say no more,” Opal interrupted. She knew that most of Alex’s current insecurities came from being lied to and misled her first year of being a werewolf and when those insecurities came out she tried her best to dispel them or just ignore them depending on how irrational she felt that they were in her opinion. As for this one, she knew that she couldn’t convince Alex to the contrary no matter what, so she chose to ignore how Alex kept saying that she was horrible at doing her own makeup because she had seen photos of her prior to her attack and knew that she in fact was very capable at doing her own makeup. Once she found out she would be working with the world renowned Chef, Opal spent a full day researching her on-line and read every article that she could find about her. Then she spent some time with Nathaniel and had been able to piece together a more inclusive history of her boss so that she could work with her more cohesively.

“Alright, so what was the purple shadow doing to make your life so miserable?”

Alex couldn’t help but smile at Opal’s faux angry tone. She didn’t know how Opal did it, but the weretiger had a knack for making her smile even when all she wanted to do was scream or cry. She was grateful beyond words that she had found her Sous-Chef early on in the opening process because she knew that having Opal by her side had made the pre-opening process so much easier than she had anticipated that it was going to be.

“Every time I put it on,” Alex started as a dark blush spread across her face and neck “it looked like I had a black eye. No matter what I tried it didn’t look anything like how Stephen had taught me to do it.”

Even though she tried not to, Opal let out a boisterous laugh at that explanation. Alex looked shocked for a fraction of a second before she glared at the other woman. Opal then held her hands up in a sign of surrender because she knew she had offended Alex without intending to do so.

“I’m sorry Chef, that as rude of me, but in all honesty that’s why I hate using purple eye shadow. You know how I have a bad habit of rubbing my eyes right? Well on more than one occasion when I came home at the end of the day someone would be asking me who knocked me around so now I’ve eliminated it from my color palette.” Alex then gave her a pleading look, so Opal continued sympathetically, “But that doesn’t mean that I won’t try to help you. The boys are right, this color does do wonders for your eyes. Now, this is the brush that you were trying to use?”

Alex nodded, looking very meek and unsure.

“Well that’s probably the biggest problem. It’s the totally wrong brush for you to be using.” Alex gave Opal a look like she didn’t understand, so Opal quickly explained, “Think of it this way Chef; for this job you need a paring knife, but you’ve been using a butcher’s knife.”

“Oh… okay… Yeah, that makes sense. But I swear that’s the same brush he showed me with… I… I think.”

“Well maybe they look alike, but that really doesn’t matter right now. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you all fixed up so that you don’t have to keep everyone waiting any longer than they have to, okay?”

“Oaky, but…”

“I’ll do a quick tutorial with you another day to show you what I did. But really you should play around with it all on your own too so that you can get more comfortable with all of your new tools, alright?”

Alex let out a relieved sigh. “That sounds perfect. Seriously Opal, what would I do without you?”

“Curl up in a ball and cry?” Alex laughed at Opal’s teasing, causing her to gently reprimand her boss saying, “Hey you keep moving like that and I’m going to give you raccoon eyes and make you go out just like that.”

Alex settled in her seat and held herself as still as possible while she spoke. “I’m sorry, but it’s really all your fault for being so damned funny. I… I need to like clone you.”

“Why? I love it here and really don’t plan on moving any time in the near or distant future.”

“I know, but if I had two of you then I could have one of you work with me during the night shift to run interference and the other you could run the kitchen for the day shift. That way we could stay open 24 hours a day just like we talked with Jean-Claude about working up to sooner or later.”

After Alex finished speaking she tentatively opened her eyes because she couldn’t feel Opal working on her face. She wasn’t sure if that was because Opal was actually finished or if she had shocked the weretiger into paralysis and she didn’t want to move too much if there was more work to be done. Once her eyes were opened she felt her heart sink ant the expression that was plain on Opal’s face.

Once they made eye contact, Opal managed to snap out of her near trance. “Chef are…? Are you serious? You’d really put me in charge of a whole shift…? Like by myself?”

Alex smile and took Opal’s free and in both of hers. “Don’t sound so surprised. You’ve done such great work training everyone that we were ready to open ahead of schedule. Hell, I’ve even left you in charge most of today so that I could do interviews and all that other crap Jean-Claude wanted me to do… Oh shit… don’t tell him I called it that though!”

Opal laughed softly at Alex’s candor. “Yeah, but you’ve been in and out of the kitchen between all of that, hence you having to re-do your makeup. I thought that you were doing that because you didn’t trust me being alone with everyone in the kitchen.”

“No! That isn’t it at all! I just needed the distraction because the press and the cameras drive me fucking crazy. Why do you think I banned them from being here for the rest of the night? I know it annoys Jean-Claude that after a couple of quick photo ops with the food and donors that I want them gone, but I honestly can’t them and all of their stupid questions because they’re never, ever about the food. It’s all ‘who are you dating?’, ‘where have you been the last year?’ or ‘why didn’t you just go back up to Seattle?’. ARGH! It’s just so aggravating!”

This time it was Opal’s turn to laugh at Alex’s commentary. “Yeah I can see how that would piss you off… And on that note, my work here is done. You’re ready to be sent back out to the shark tank while looking absolutely fabulous.”

Alex stood up to inspect her reflection in the mirror. Although it didn’t look exactly like Stephen had taught her to apply her eyeshadow, it was still expertly applied. Somehow Opal had managed to make her eyes sparkle the same way that Stephen had whenever he did her makeup. She used to be able to do the same things herself, but back then it had been with her fake brown eyes and her fake blond hair, so trying to work with her more natural coloring was causing a major brain block for Alex. It was one of the many things that she was working on with her therapist. Her therapist had quickly recognized that the more something appeared to be a pure mental block, the more difficulties she had helping Alex overcome it. That seemed to make sense to Dr. Gleeson even though it made no sense to Alex, but she stopped trying to question the logic of the illogical and just work on the exercises the good doctor had given her to work on the things she needed to in order to become ‘herself’ again.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Alex turned back to her right-hand woman to say, “Thank you so much Opal. I couldn’t have done ANY of this without you.”

“It’s no problem Chef. You know I’m your Girl Friday, always here to help.”

Alex smiled brightly but didn’t say anything else. In all honesty she was worried that if they kept talking about that topic that she would start to cry. That of course would destroy her makeup and then she would be right back to where she started when Opal came in to check on her. She couldn’t allow that to happen because had an event to co-host and if she delayed herself any longer she might completely chicken out and stay in the kitchen for the rest of the night instead of doing her duty.

“Thanks again Opal. And offer still stands if you want to get into one of the photo ops, you’re still more than welcome. All you have to do is deliver the plate to Anita.”

Opal shook her head saying, “Thanks anyways, but I don’t want the evil cameramen to steal my sol, I’ll leave that all for you.”

That was a recurring joke between the two of them that never failed to make Alex smile. She then turned and made her way to the door. She had nearly made it into the hallway when she heard Opal call out, “Hey Alex?”

Alex turned, slightly shocked at hearing her Sous-Chef use her first name. “Yes Opal?”

“Are…? Umm… were you…?” Opal started in an uncharacteristically hesitant voice. “Were you serious that I could be Head Chef on the day shift if you had someone to run interference for you during the night shift?”

“Absolutely. I mean I’d miss having you by my side, but there’s no one else that I would trust to run things in the kitchen if I’m not there. Why? Do you have someone in mind?”

“Maybe,” Opal replied with an unsure smile. “I… umm… I want to think about it a bit more, but I just wanted to make sure you meant it.”

“I really meant it, but… for the future. Jean-Claude and I decided to give it a couple of months to see how things go before we contemplate expanding our hours. But when the time comes to revisit the topic, I’ll make sure that we include you on all of the discussions, okay?”

“Okay… I mean, that’s perfect. Thank you Chef.”

Once again Alex just shared a smile with her Sous-Chef before she turned and made her way to the dining room. She made a quick detour to the kitchen to retrieve a wineglass filled with her blood to take out to the Master of the City for their potential cover photo. Without having to ask, a waiter appeared at her side with a plate of food that she assumed was meant for the Master’s Human Servant. The vampire server gave her a bright smile that caused him to flash fangs at her.

“Okay Andre, are you ready for your close up?”

He smile even more broadly then answered, “Absolutely Chef.”

Initially Alex thought that the last photos of the night would go quickly, but for some reason they actually felt like they took longer than any of the others that they had done during the evening. It could have just been Alex’s impatience that was clouding her judgement, but instead of just a couple of shots of her and Andre delivering their orders, the photographer had taken multiple shots from no less than three different angles. What drove Alex the craziest was that for every new angle they actually had to walk almost all the way back to the kitchen so that the photographer could be sure that he wouldn’t ‘miss his shot’. The resetting and retaking of what Alex felt were shots that had already been taken didn’t seem to faze either of the vampires, so Alex started to feel like maybe she was over-reacting. That was until she stole a glance at her Lupa and saw a similar look of irritation on Anita’s face.

As Andre picked up her plate for the third time, so that he could start the fourth round of pictures, Anita gripped his wrist and froze him to his place as she said, “When all of this is said and done, I’m going to be famished because I’ve had a really long day. Am I seriously going to be expected to eat an ice cold meal?”

Alex smiled, feeling vindicated, because even she hadn’t thought of using that as an excuse to put an end to her current predicament. Before the Chef could formulate an adequate reply she heard Andre answer, “No Ma’am, we have new plates being prepared for everyone to enjoy once we’ve completed the formalities.”

“Excuse me?!” Alex exclaimed causing everyone in the restaurant to focus on her. “And who authorized that waste of food and money?”

After working with vampires so closely during the training process for the restaurant, Alex had gotten to know the vampire community quite well in St. Louis. It still amazed her how much some of them could pale even though naturally their skin retained an unhealthy coloring. Right now was definitely one of those moments.

Andre stare at her with his eyes as large as saucers as he stammered, “It was… I don’t… I don’t… I just…”

“ _Ma gamine. C’était moi_ _,_ ” Jean-Claude quietly responded as he gently touched her forearm. Both his voice and his gentle touch helped to calm his young werewolf. He waited until they made full eye contact before he explained, “The photographer and I discussed his expectations for the evening. Since we had already decided that you were not to be included in that discussion, nor were you to be considered ‘in charge’ of the kitchen for the majority of the night, I spoke with Opal about it. She and I came to the conclusion that it would be best if the actual meals our guests are going to consume were not the same as the presentation pieces used during the time taken during the photos.”

“ _Ça fait du sens mon Maître_ _,_ that makes sense Sir, but…” Alex nearly whispered in her now embarrassed state.

“There will be no waste _ma gamine_ ,” he interrupted as he began to pet her hand. “Opal was most insistent that you run a minimal waste enterprise.” He then gently puller her down so that he could whisper in her ear. “Gina has arranged for all of the food to go to those in need as soon as the photo shoot is completed. The kitchen staff is going to warm up the food and then repackage it so that it can be donated.”

Alex started at him with their noses nearly touching and all she could say in reply was, “Oh.”

Jean-Claude smiled and added, “I apologize that we did not ward you in advance. I knew that you had so many other details to worry about that I didn’t want to burden you with this as well.”

“It’s fine Jean-Claude. I just wish Opal or Gina had of warned me.” She then stood up and turned to the photographer to say, “I’m sorry about my inappropriate outburst. Where did you want us to set up for the next set of photos?”

“Well,” he started as he heard numerous lycanthropes at Jean-Claude and Anita’s table let out a faint groan of complaint. He smile sympathetically at all of them as he continued, “Well, actually we’ve already gone over the time that Jean-Claude and I had allotted for these photos. I should actually be apologizing to you for losing track of time. But in all honesty it isn’t often that I get to work with so many unbelievably beautiful subjects, I just got lost in the moment.” He then turned his attention to Jean-Claude. “I’m sure that we have more than enough material for the article. It doesn’t run for a couple of days, so I should be able to get a copy together for you to proof by tomorrow…”

Jean-Claude silenced him with a wave of his hand before he said, “You are the _artiste_ Benjamin, I still trust your judgement to paint a flattering picture of our latest enterprise.”

The photographer smiled brightly and actually bowed as he excitedly replied, “Thank you Sir. I promise that you all are going to love it. Alright guys, let’s get out of everyone’s hair so that they can enjoy the rest of their evening.”

With that everyone from the newspaper and magazine who were being offered an exclusive, inside look at what was predicted to be the newest, hottest night spot in St. Louis, started to pack up and leave. As the started to make their exit, Opal and a line of kitchen staff streamed out of the kitchen with plates of food and wine goblets of blood for all of the distinguished guests at Jean-Claude’s table.

It had been a bit of a struggle trying to narrow down the list of people who would be included at the head table. As it was they had to put more than one table together to accommodate the number of people that Alex and Jean-Claude had wanted to treat as their own personal guests. At the head of the table sat Jean-Claude. To his right was Asher and on his left sat Anita. Beside Anita was Micah then Nathaniel because they were the men closest to her personally. Next to Nathaniel was Cynric (mostly because Alex wanted him to as comfortable as possible by sitting beside his ‘big brother’), then came the person most important to her, Jason. She was quite happy that Jason ended up at one end of the table because it made it easier for her to pause and check in on him throughout the night without being overly obvious.

That side of the table had been fairly easy to arrange but the opposite side hadn’t come together as smoothly. On Asher’s right sat Kane, his new werehyena boyfriend. At first Alex had been very vocal that she didn’t want him at that table at all, but apparently Asher had been most insistent to the contrary because Jean-Claude had requested, emphatically, that she allow him to sit with the other VIPs (the term Alex used for everyone she wanted to sit at Jean-Claude’s table) as a personal favor to him, so she relented. Next to Kane was Damien, Anita’s Vampire Servant, who served as a buffer between the werehyena and Claudia. Jean-Claude had questioned why Claudia (and to a lesser degree Cynric) were to be included at the table and Alex had simply replied that she considered them her friends. Jean-Claude hadn’t pressed after that because he knew that Alex had felt like she was having a hard time fitting in with different animal groups, so to hear her use that term for the two of them had warmed his heart. Then finally next to Claudia was Rafael, the King of the local Rodere, the local wererat clan. Before anyone could question that invitation going out to him, Alex had cited that it was a political move. She knew how important the wererats were to Jean-Claude’s and Anita’s safety by being bodyguards as well as all of the work that Dr. Lillian did for them at all hours of the day. Alex felt like this was the perfect way to show him and his clan their respect Jean –Claude immediately approved, so no one else thought to question it any further.

Initially she had wanted to include Dr. Lillian and Buzz at their table, but they both had replied on their RSVP that they would be bringing someone with them. She had wanted to make their night as comfortable and luxurious as possible, she instead placed them in a booth each with their plus one. She hope that it would provide a romantic setting for them as well with their companions.

As she watched everyone being served and starting to enjoy their meals, Alex couldn’t help but feel a little bit sad. Verne, Roxanne and Marianne had had to decline the invitations she extended to them. There was some sort of time sensitive issue that the pack was dealing with at the moment and none of them could leave Tennessee without endangering the ones they had vowed to protect. Alex of course understood why they couldn’t attend the restaurant opening, but she still felt their absence all the same.

Now if Alex was being truly honest, the number one reason that Kane’s presence was like a punch in the gut to her was that in her mind he was sitting in Richard’s, her Ulfric’s, spot. As soon as they started discussing the Grand Opening, Richard had taken Alex aside and explained to her that he couldn’t risk the exposure by attending such a grandiose event. She had argued that the press would only be there at the beginning, but Richard could not be persuaded by any of her promises. When Asher had caught wind of that, he had pounced and laid out his case to Jean-Claude about having Kane accompany him because really it was helping them by filling an empty seat. After that Alex had eventually caved because she didn’t want to anger Jean-Claude by continuing to bicker with him about that subject.

But still she felt Richard’s absence the most. She wanted her Ulfric to be there because his station meant that he deserved to be a member of her VIP crowd. More importantly as her friend she wanted him there. In fact if it was only Richard, Jason and Nathaniel that could have been there in the restaurant it would have suited her just fine. She knew that would be the most awkward dinner party on the planet, but still those were the three men she felt like she owed the most to and to whom she felt the closest.

As Alex stood there, lost in her thoughts, at Jason’s side at the end of the table opposite where Jean-Claude was sitting, Opal appeared beside her with a flute filled with champagne. She absently passed it and a spoon to the Head Chef which finally helped Alex to focus on what was actually happening instead of how she wanted things to be right now.

“Thank you Opal,” Alex stated just barely over a whisper as she claimed both items.

Opal just inclined her head in reply before she made a hasty retreat back to the kitchen. She knew that Alex wasn’t feeling overly confident about the speech she was going to soon be making and she didn’t want to make Alex feel any extra discomfort by being present. While Alex had been practicing with Opal she had let it slip that Opal was among a select group of people who would make her irrationally nervous. They hadn’t discussed that topic beyond that one brief comment, but Opal respected Alex too much to remain in the room when she knew the truth.

“Excuse me?” Alex started quietly as she very gently tapped the spoon in her hand against the side of her champagne flute “Sorry everyone… but can I have your attention for a moment?”

Alex was too quiet to really have anyone but a select few of their guests to take notice of her. Even then the people who fell silent and redirected their attention to her mostly only did so because of how awkward she looked as opposed to actually wanting to hear what she had to say.

Luckily one of the people in that small crowd of the on-lookers was Jean-Claude. He stood up from his chair, which caused many curious dinners to turn their attention to him. For the remaining few that weren’t facing him, Jean-Claude put a great deal of power into his voice as he called out, “ _Mes amis_? If I could have but a moment of your time, I believe that our Hostess and Chef would like to say a few words.”

Alex’s cheeks turned a faint shade of pink when she made eye contact with him, so he added, “ _Ma gamine, la parole est à toi_ ”

“ _Merci_ Jean-Claude.” Alex took in a deep breath then said in a more confident tone. “I promise that I will keep this brief because I want you to be able to enjoy your meals while they’re nice and hot.” She paused when she heard a soft rumble of laughter. Since they all seemed to understand that she was poking fun at herself for her mini-meltdown during the photo session, Alex relaxed even further and spoke with a great deal more of ease. “I just wanted to thank you all for being here with us tonight. My crew and I have been working long, hard hours every day to put everything together to open my dream restaurant and I’m more than excited to finally have that dream become a reality. Jean-Claude, Asher… _Merci à vous deux pour tous de votre soutien et expertise. Mon rêve ne peut pas être réaliser sans tout votre travail dur. Vous avez mon cœur pour toujours._ To Anita, my Lupa, Micah her Nimir-Raj, and Raphael, King of the rats. A heartfelt thanks to you, your pack, pard and clan for all of your enthusiasm and support. NONE of this would have been possible if you hadn’t taken the time to hear me out and remained so positive during the process.” She sighed then added quietly (more to herself than anyone in the crowd), “I only wish that my Ulfric could have been here too.”

She took a moment there to compose herself and everyone in the dining room seemed to hold their breath while they waited for her to continue.

Alex turned so that she was facing Jason’s side of the table and raised her glass saying, “A very special ‘Thank you’ to Nathaniel for letting me steal your biscuit recipe I’m sure that everyone here has enjoyed while they have been waiting for their food.”

“Here! Here!” A few voices shouted out around her.

Alex actually jumped slightly in her place as a large number of the lycanthrope patrons voiced their approval and appreciation. Alex couldn’t help but smile brightly because she knew Nathaniel would never have accepted her praise any other way.

Nathaniel smiled meekly and just mouth ‘you’re welcome’ under the sounds of the crowd.

“And last but not least, Jason…”

He put his hand to his chest in mock surprise as he breathed out, “ _Moi_?”

Alex glared at him because she knew that he was teasing her to hide his own embarrassment at being in the spot-light. Although he and Nathaniel made a living by dancing and removing their clothing on a stage, neither of them seemed to feel overly comfortable when she praised either of them when they were in a group. One on one, Nathaniel seemed to take it in stride, but Jason most of the time tried to tease his way out of any sincere moment. Alex in turn would chastise him that the only time he was ever serious was when they were making love. Jason’s only reply to that had been to waggle his eyebrows at her and tease her that even then he wasn’t all that ‘serious’, if you know what he means.

“Yes you,” she replied with laughter in her tone. “None of this could have been possible without you. Thank you for helping me keep from going completely insane.” She then bent down to place a quick kiss on his cheek before whispering, “ _Tu es mon ange et je t’adore mon loup-garou_.”

Jason smile and whispered back, “I feel the same way _ma loupe d’or_.”

Alex lingered close to him as she took in a couple deep breaths with her eyes closed. As it always did, Jason’s sent helped to ground her. But it also always got her thinking about all of the things she wanted to do with him. Since pretty much all of them would be considered indecent in a public place, let alone her restaurant, she forced herself to stand up straight and take a step away from him.

For a brief moment she let herself forget where she was and kept her eyes closed while she savored his lingering scent. Suddenly someone cleared their throat causing Alex to startle in her place. She tried to keep herself from blushing but she knew that there was no hope in stopping it.

Alex as eternally grateful that the lights were dimmed to a lower setting to create the ambiance that she, Jean-Claude and Asher had desired because she was sure that it would help to camouflage the pink of her cheeks. She figured that if she just ignored her embarrassment and continued as if nothing happened no one would notice it. Unfortunately she was forgetting that pretty much all of her lycanthrope diners, especially the truly strong ones, would be able to smell her change in body chemistry. Fortunately for her none of them would let on to that fact.

“Right, so I was going to keep this short,” she continued in a forced light-hearted tone. “Please do enjoy your meal and don’t forget to fill out the comment cards that your servers will pass around at the end of the night. Again thank you for being our guests tonight to celebrate our new endeavor. _Bon appetite_!”

The whole room started to applaud and softly cheer. After Alex finished speaking she bowed awkwardly because she really wasn’t sure how else to finish the speech. She then looked over to Jean-Claude for “Hey help and thankfully he seemed to understand her predicament.

Jean-Claude stood once again and raised his glass saying, “To our Chef. I’m sure everyone will enjoy their repast. We appreciate you joining us tonight and as our Chef said _Bon appetite_.”

His declaration was followed by another round of applause. Alex then move to Jean-Claude’s side to quietly ask, “Would you like your drink to be refreshed?”

“ _Non ma gamine_ , it’s quite fine.”

She smiled then did a quick survey of the table before saying, “If anyone needs anything else, please do not hesitate to ask.”

Everyone (well all of the lycanthropes) had started their meals, so the only reply Alex got were a few muffled words. She couldn’t help but smile because she knew that meant that they were enjoying their food and that all of her worrying was for nothing. Since all of the VIPs appeared to be content, Alex decided to do a quick check around the rest of the restaurant to make sure that her other guests were as happy as they could be as well. Back in Seattle there hadn’t been many occasions where Alex could leave the kitchen to mingle with her diners, which had suited her quite well back then because she wasn’t much of a socialite. Now, however, she genuinely wanted to interact with the people who had helped her to get to where she was now; happy, healthy and safe within Jean-Claude’s inner circle.

After she completed her rounds, Alex lingered at the edge of the dining room closest to the kitchen. She still felt like she needed to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming because most of the time her life felt like it was too good to be true. As her eyes scanned the crowd, they inevitably found Jason, or rather the back of his head since he was seated with his back to her. She joke that he was her guardian angel, but the truth of the matter was that he had found her and carried her to a doctor that had helped to heal her, physically speaking. But more importantly he continued to be a source of comfort and support which allowed her to feel safe enough to try to heal herself psychologically. It was no easy task but he took it on with minimal complaints.

“Hey Boss?” Opal’s quiet voice startled Alex out of her thoughts. “Sorry to disturb you Chef, but we need your help with a situation in the kitchen.”

Without taking her eyes off Jason, Alex replied in a dreamy tone, “Whatever it is Opal, I’m sure that you’re more than capable of taking care of it.”

Opal was slightly taken aback by Alex’s tone of voice, so she leaned to one side to look around her boss. When her eyes found what she was sure had captured the Chef’s attention, Opal couldn’t help but smile. That quickly turned into a cringe when she remembered why she had come out in the first place. She knew how much her boyfriend meant to her boss and she was loathed to interrupt this moment of bliss, but she knew that she could not let it deter her.

“Thanks for that vote of confidence Chef, but uhh… this… umm… there’s… err…” Opal stopped and took a moment to regroup before more confidently saying, “There’s an intruder in the kitchen and none of us have been able to get them to leave. Since you’re the scariest be--- err… wolf in the place we figured you could scare them off.”

Alex had turned to look at Opal before her declaration primarily because she had never heard her Sous-Chef stutter like that before. Initially she was worried about the other woman but that was quickly forgotten. As soon as Opal was finished speaking her concern quickly changed into a near blind rage.

“Intruder? In MY kitchen?” Alex started stalking towards the two over-sized swinging doors that led to that very room. Even through her anger, Alex managed to keep her voice low as she continued her tirade, “How the fuck did someone get into MY kitchen? I expected better of you Opal.”

Opal looked abashed as the two women walked through the doors and kept her gaze on her feet. She never wanted to fail her boss and felt even worse that she may have disappointed her friend.

“I just can’t even…” Alex continued without noticing how her words were affecting her right-hand woman. She took a breath to continue but by that time she had reached the wall of a man that was the root of her strong emotions. Instead of continuing to tear a strip off of Opal, Alex instead directed her wrath at its source. “Look buddy I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but when my staff…”

Her words quickly trailed off when her target turned to face her. Her cheeks started to flush into a deep reddish pink color as he gave her a familiar warm smile as he greeted her saying, “Hey Raya.”

“Richard… err Ulfric, you said you wouldn’t be able to make it tonight.”

“I know I did and I still don’t think I should risk it, but…” He paused as he took a small step to one side to reveal a petite woman with stylish, short blond hair dressed in a modest, yet very stylish, dark green skirt suit. She stood eye to eye with Alex, however without her kitten heeled shoes she most likely would have had to look up ever so slightly to meet Alex’s gaze. “But my mother heard about the invitation and she’s been wanting to go to your place in Seattle and threatened…”

“Richard!” His mother, Charlotte Zeeman, interrupted him with a soft slap on his bicep. “Don’t you go scaring the young lady.”

Alex’s face drained of all of its color so quickly that she was surprised that she didn’t collapse in her place. When she spoke again her voice was just barely over a whisper. “That’s… you… she’s your…”

As she tailed off into a soft groan she covered her face with both of her hands. She now felt so embarrassed and ashamed about her outburst that she didn’t think that she could ever face her Ulfric or his mother again. Just as she started to shrink away from them Richard immediately took a step forward to try to comfort her, but he was stopped by his mother placing a gentle hand on his forearm.

She shooed Richard away and approached Alex saying in a calm, serene voice, “Chef Hughes please don’t feel embarrassed. I had heard that you are a very spirited woman, especially in your kitchen so I would have actually been quite disappointed if you hadn’t shown that promised fire at hearing that there was an intruder in your kitchen like Richard had told Opal to say.”

Alex slowly moved one of her hands off of her face and was surprised that she was met with a set of kind, compassion-filled eyes instead of an annoyed angry gaze. She still wouldn’t fully reveal her face so “Charlotte reached out and gently removed her other hand from her face.

The other woman didn’t let go of her hand as she said, “It’s nothing I have heard before Chef.”

Charlotte gave her hand a gentle squeeze which helped Alex to finally calm down a bit. Alex then smiled and meekly said in a soft voice, “Still, I’m very sorry Mrs. Zeeman.”

Charlotte smiled and dismissed Alex’s words with a wave of her hand then said, “It’s forgotten. But Richard and I should be apologizing to you for not RSVP’ing to your event. If you don’t have room for us, I understand.”

This time it was Alex’s turn to give the other woman a cheeky grin when she replied, “I told Richard I would have a special table set up for him. It’s away from the crowd and therefore out of any camera’s view as well.”

Charlotte quickly turned only her head so that she could look at Richard over her shoulder. What Opal and Alex didn’t know was that she was glaring at her son. Alex overheard a couple of muffled laughs from behind Richard, so she assumed that Charlotte had a similar look on her face that Alex’s own mother had given her on more than one occasion when she had been cross with her daughter.

Feeling sympathetic for her Ulfric, Alex gently squeezed Charlotte’s hand adding, “I don’t blame him for saying that there might not be a table waiting for him. I wasn’t too happy with him when he declined my invitations, with an ‘s’ because I tried to get him to say ‘yes’ more than once.”

Charlotte gave the Chef a meek smile before Alex continued saying, “But if you both will follow me, I’ll take you to your table.”

“That would be lovely. Thank you Chef Hughes.”

Richard held out his bent right arm for his mother to take. As she slipped her dainty looking hand through the crook of his arm and over his forearm he saying, “Thanks Raya. I owe you one.”

Alex just inclined her head and then turned on her heel to lead them out of the kitchen. She then led them out of the kitchen. She then led them to a booth that was near the back of the restaurant. The booth was secluded enough that anyone who sat there could have privacy without feeling like they were going to be forgotten by their server.

“Your restaurant is beautiful,” Charlotte complimented with an awed tone as she sat down.

Alex blushed then quietly replied, “Thanks, but the _décor_ is all Asher and Jean-Claude’s doing.”

Richard gave Alex a disapproving look at that comment, which she promptly ignored. Instead she stepped in close to him so that she could speak in a tone too quiet for his mother to over-hear.

“Don’t forget Richard, it’s my treat tonight.”

“Raya…” He tried to counter in an equally hushed voice.

Again Alex ignored his veiled warning and didn’t respond to it. Instead she took a step back from the table and smiled brightly at her new patrons.

“Ulfric, Mrs. Zeeman, I hope you enjoy your dining experience here at ‘Tasty Morsels’. I’ll have your server come over with menus and a more comprehensive wine list. Our other drink menu can be found on your table. If there is anything else I or my staff can do to make your dining experience more enjoyable, please don’t hesitate to let us know.”

“Thank you Chef.”

“Thanks again Raya.”

Once again Alex inclined her head to them before she turned and left. She then went to the front of the restaurant and quietly explained to the Maître D’ about their new guests. At first he appeared quite perplexed and looked like he was going to question her about how they had been seated without his knowledge, but he wisely bit his tongue. Instead he smiled and assured his boss that he would have a server tend to them as promptly as possible and that he would make sure that they were well taken care of for the evening.

Alex had no doubt that Richard and his mother would be treated to first class service. Not only did she demand such performance from all of her employees, she also knew that the server in that section was a werewolf from their pack, so she would be sure to take care of their Ulfric. Alex almost gave her a word of warning, but decided against it. What fun was it to be a surprise guest if you only got to surprise the Chef?

After she was sure that all of her guests were being taken care of, Alex drifted to a part of the restaurant where she could watch almost the whole dining room. The most important thing for her was that she could see Richard with his mother as well as her table of VIPs with ease. Here she could watch from a comfortable distance and relish in the feeling of joy that overcame her at seeing them look so at ease and happy.

“Hey,” she heard someone whisper in her ear as she felt them wrap their arms around her waist. “Don’t cry Alex. Everyone is having a great time and absolutely loving their food. That’s including everyone who’s on a liquid diet too.”

Alex let her head rest on Jason’s shoulder so that they were both able to see the same view of the dining room. She then shook her head and blushed her tears away from her cheeks with the palms of her hands.

“ _No mon_ _loup garou_ these aren’t tears of sorrow.” She herself in his arms so that she could wrap her arms around his neck and give him a quick kiss. “As my mom always used to say ‘my heart is just over-flowing and it’s coming out through my eyes’.”

Jason didn’t look like he believed her, so Alex pecked his lips again then said, “Everything is finally perfect Jason. Quit worrying.”

 


	13. Chapter 13

 

At the end of a long night, Jason looked forward to nothing but getting back to the room he shared with Alex at the Circus of the Damned. Now that ‘Tasty Morsels’ had opened and was running as smoothly as anyone could hope, the two werewolves had been able to establish some semblance of a regular schedule and daily routine. Well nightly routine since both of their jobs kept them on a nocturnal schedule.

Since theirs was to be the first restaurant to openly cater to vampires and lycanthropes, Alex and Jean-Claude had decided that their hours should reflect the habits of their clientele. Alex had also pointed out that pretty much all of Jean-Claude’s other enterprises were open during those same nightly hours and that it would make sense for their restaurant to follow suit. The only difference was that ‘Tasty Morsels’ was opened a few hours later than the other places so that their patrons and (more importantly) their performers would have somewhere to go to unwind at the end of their night.

The fact that that meant that she and Jason would be working on almost identical schedules wasn’t lost on Alex either. Since she had Gina and her staff to manage everything outside of the kitchen and Opal to assist with completing purchase orders and other areas inside the kitchen, Alex actually seemed to have more free time than Jason on most nights. She translated that into surprising him with dinner presented in a variety of different ways most nights. Her favorite was to set up a picnic on the floor of their bedroom so that they had complete privacy while also being close to a comfortable bed where they would usually enjoy their ‘dessert’. Other times she would try to set a mood in the kitchen or dining room at the Circus, but with the number of preternatural beings what lived in the subterranean complex, it was much harder to guarantee privacy outside of their bedroom.

One the rarest of occasions, Jason met Alex at the restaurant for a meal. But she disliked mixing business with pleasure that way, mostly because she couldn’t trust herself to maintain a professional demeanor in front of her staff while dining with him. If they were to meet at work, more often than not Alex would meet Jason in his office at ‘Guilty Pleasures’. He had told her some of the stories about what had happened while Anita had been trying to gain control over the _ardeur_ that she had inherited from Jean-Claude when their Lupa became his Human Servant. At first Alex had thought that Jason was teasing her about Anita and Jean-Claude being able to feed off sexual energy, but then she had spoken to her two most trusted confidants, Richard and Nathaniel, about it and they both confirmed Jason’s claims. (The conversation with her Ulfric about that topic had been incredibly uncomfortable and awkward, but in the end it had helped Alex to finally understand the reason, at least in part, behind some of the tensions that existed between Richard and some of the other members of their group.) However, even after hearing Jason’s rather explicit tales of Anita’s sexual escapades in the dressing rooms and offices at ‘Guilty Pleasures’, Alex still felt uncomfortable being too overtly sexual with Jason there. It was his workplace, so to her that meant that they should respect that no matter what anyone else, their Master and Lupa included, had done. The separation of work and home had always been very important to her father because he didn’t want to be bothered when spending time with her and her mother. That principle had always resonated with Alex and his voice was always in the back of her mind when she was with Jason at either of their workplaces, so she preferred to finish their nights solely in their room. Jason joked that so long as she was supplying him with a regular of diet of mind blowing sex that he didn’t really care where it happened. But the truth was that Alex’s comfort and security were the most important things in his life and he would never consciously do anything to compromise either one of them.

That in turn meant that tonight, just like practically every night that came before it, Jason was nearly skipping down the oddly shaped stairs into the basement of the Circus of the Damned. He would briefly pause to acknowledge the security guards and other residents he met along the way to keep from being overtly rude, but he never stopped to chat. He didn’t want anything to delay him from getting back to Alex because somewhere deep down inside he was secretly afraid that one day he was going to get back to his room and find that it was just that, HIS room and his alone. Since Alex had already completely abandoned her life once, Jason sub-consciously worried that she might do the same thing here in St. Louis as well. Rationally he knew those thoughts were completely ridiculous because the circumstances were completely different, but he also knew that his deepest fears had nothing to do with anything remotely rational.

The only time he actually stopped moving inside the Circus of the Damned was when he got to his bedroom door. The door was closed tight, which wasn’t out of the norm, so Jason pressed his ear against it to see if he could hear what was happening inside. Very faintly he could hear music playing, but he couldn’t hear any movement. Again that really wasn’t really an odd occurrence for the two of them and Jason just assumed it meant that Alex had already set the scene and was now patiently waiting for him to get home.

“Sorry I’m so late!” He called out as he pushed open the door. Much to his surprise there was no picnic and no werewolf visible in their room. Feeling his heart-rate start to speed up, Jason tried his best not to let his impending panic show in his voice when he called out, “Alex? Alex? Are you home?”

He moved to turn on a couple of the lamps they had placed around their room when a soft sound coming from the bed froze him in his place. Because he had been expecting Alex to be sitting on the floor he had kept his attention focused on that area and he hadn’t really taken the time to look anywhere else. Now that the noise had alerted him to Alex’s presence he could see a slim lump under the covers on Alex’s side of the bed. Smiling to himself, Jason moved quickly to Alex’s side so that it would be easier for them to talk to each other.

“Jason?” She finally questioned in a voice heavy with sleep. “Oh shit! Did I fall asleep?”

“Yeah you did. Sorry, I’m later than I expected to be.”

Alex groaned softly, annoyed with herself for not staying awake like she had planned. “Did you make sure to eat?”

Jason brushed Alex’s hair back so that he could see her face more easily and couldn’t help but smile even wider. Even with her hair sleep tousled and the corner of her mouth glistening with drool, she was still one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. That he had the privilege to come home and make love to her every night absolutely amazed him even more. He knelt down so that his face was level with hers on the pillow. He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips before answering, “Yes I did, just like I told you I would when I called to let you know I might be later than usual tonight.”

Alex brushed her nose gently against his then she let her head flop back onto her pillow. “Good because I wouldn’t want to have a hungry werewolf on my hands when all he has to snack on is little ol’ me.”

Jason growled playfully and nipped at Alex’s neck a couple of times. She let out a quiet squeal while lifting the covers to hide underneath them. She managed to get most of herself covered, but she left the top of her head and one ear out in the open. Still feeling playful, Jason gently bit the exposed flesh of her ear causing Alex to squeal out his name again in playful protest.

She could feel the smile that was still plastered on his face as he kissed the top of her head. “Okay, I’ll go get ready for bed so you can get your beauty sleep.”

Alex pulled the comforter off her head, but she kept it tight against her body when she tucked it under her chin. “I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t mean to fall asleep before you got back.

“It’s fine. You’ve been so busy at the restaurant lately that I’m surprised you haven’t fallen back asleep already. Now I’ll just be a minute and then you can go back to sleep without me disturbing you anymore.”

“It’s alright, I’m away now so you can take your time.”

“Sorry about that,” he apologized quietly as he pecked her lips a couple of times before he reluctantly pulled away to go into the bathroom.

Once the door was nearly closed, Alex flipped the covers back and sat up. They both had gotten into the habit of leaving the door open at least an inch or two when they were getting ready for their day or bed so that they could talk easily with each other. Once they had tried to use the sink by standing side by side, but the room wasn’t large enough to allow for that, at least not comfortably. If either of them was in the mood to get an elbow to the ribs, it was a great way of accomplishing that, but since that desire was about as rare as wanting to get food poisoning, they found this compromise much more comfortable. She knew that even with the door partially open Jason wouldn’t be able to see her if she was on the bed or sitting at her new vanity.

When she apologized to Jason for falling asleep, Alex had actually been silently chastising herself because she truly hadn’t meant to succumb to her fatigue. In fact she had actually left work early to get everything ready to surprise Jason. But she couldn’t help but smile when she heard him turn on the faucet to fill the sink because that might actually help her plan to work out even better. Since it sounded like he was filling the sink, Alex assumed that that meant that Jason had performed on stage tonight. That meant that he would have had to put on makeup, which would mean that he would have to take his time to wash it all off. Depending on how he had made himself up it could take him quite a while to get it all off, especially if glitter had been involved. That didn’t bother Alex at all because she could use a couple of extra minutes to make herself presentable once again.

“So were you guys busy tonight?” She called out as she moved to her vanity. When she saw her reflection she cringed at how horrible she looked. _And Jason willingly kissed me more than once?_ She thought to herself with a chuckle.

“Yeah we had reservations for a Bachelorette Party for one of ‘Brandon’s’ biggest fans. We figured that they would close the place which is why I warned you that I’d be later than usual.”

“So did they?”

Alex quickly pulled her hair back into a ponytail then slit it into three sections to curl it as she heard Jason’s reply of, “Did they what?”

She couldn’t help but chuckle because his voice sounded slightly muffled. She could carry on a conversation without it affecting her cleaning off the crud from the day, but she knew that it always caused Jason to take a bit longer. Usually that would bother her a little bit (because she’d rather spend that time cuddling), but tonight she was banking on it helping her to regain the element of surprise.

“Did the ladies of the Bachelorette Party close down the club?”

He chuckled then said, “Yeah… than and some. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t end up at the restaurant to finish off their night.”

Alex paused as she re-applied her eye-liner while she considered what he had just said. “I didn’t see them, but maybe they came in after I left. BUT we did have our first proposal happen tonight.”

“You diff?”

Alex actually laughed out loud because without even looking she knew that Jason was brushing his teeth. “Yep and because they were the first I even comp’d their meal. Opal had the pleasure of putting the ring into Delilah’s dessert.”

“Delilah? You don’t mean…?”

“I do. The next time we go to the Lupanar you’ll have to make sure to congratulate her and Troy. They were even talking about having their reception at the restaurant, so I’m thinking I might give them some sort of ‘pack discount’ or something.”

“That would be very generous of you.”

Alex could tell that Jason must have been nearly finished because he was speaking more clearly. She quickly finished applying her dark, burgundy wine colored lipstick and then took her hair out of her ponytail. She slipped her head over to quickly comb her fingers through her curls to soften them. After she flipped her head back, she double checked her reflection with a bright smile spreading across her face. Now THIS was how she had pictured herself looking when Jason got home tonight.

She then quickly moved back to the bed to get into position. She was still fussing with her hair and smoothing down the front of her clothes as she watched the bathroom door open. Jason made sure to turn off the main bathroom lights before turning on the three lights that were above the sink for them to use as a night light to keep from stumbling too much if nature called either of them out of bed during their sleep.

“A wedding reception, wow that’d…” Jason froze in his spot with his mouth hanging open the instant that Alex came into view. She smile and tried to look as seductive as possible. Jason recovered, but only slightly as he stammered out, “Ah-Ah-Alex… you… you’re… you…”

She smoothed her hands down the front of her dark purple, corset style baby-doll nighty with a black satin lace-up front as she tried to mimic the poses she had been studying in fashion magazines for the last week. She started to feel uncomfortable about Jason’s stuttering speech because she wasn’t what about her appearance had caused it.

Feeling self-conscious, Alex started to pull her hair back into a knotted bun as she explained, “I really didn’t expect to fall asleep before you got home. I know I don’t look all that---”

Jason silenced her self-deprecating commentary by capturing her lips in a kiss. At first Alex was too stunned to move, but she recovered quickly. Jason started to run his fingers through her silky curls as he deepened their embrace. One their own Alex’s hands found the drawstring for Jason’s pajama bottoms and she slowly pulled the knot loose, which in turn drew his mid-section closer to her.

“Alex,” Jason breathlessly started after he broke their embrace. “Alex you look amazing. How did you…? I mean, when did you…? Have you always owned this? Because I don’t remember seeing it before. And I’m more than certain that this is something I would never be able to forget seeing you wearing.”

“Don’t worry, it’s new… it’s very, very new.”

“You mean you bought it to dress up for little ol’ me?” Jason teased with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Against her wishes, Alex’s cheeks flushed to a dark pink color. “Jason,” she admonished with a soft slap on his chest. “You know there isn’t anyone else I’d want to wear something like this for. But to answer your question, yes. Last week, Opal and her girlfriend were going to shop for new outfits for their anniversary and asked if I wanted to go with them.”

“Opal and Ruby were going shopping together to by new outfits? Doesn’t that completely ruin the element of surprise?”

Alex giggled then scooted back on the bed to make room for Jason to sit down to help them both be more comfortable while talking. He quickly took the hint and sat on the bed facing Alex. In her new position he could see that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath her teddy. As he raked over her body with another heated gaze, he mentally kicked himself for saying too much. Alex obviously had a plan for their activities to be more of the physical persuasion and he was starting to wish that he had of just followed her lead instead of asking stupid questions about her choice of clothing for the night.

Once they were both settled in their places, Alex grasped both of Jason’s hands in hers and explained, “They have some sort of an arrangement with the lady that owns the boutique we went to; they each pick out like five outfits they’d like to see the other wear. Then they try all of them on and pick one they want to wear. Then somehow the shop owner packs them up, gets paid and sends them home with their secretly chosen outfit so that there’s still some element of mystery.”

“Mmm… so if they were picking stuff out for their girlfriend to wear, why wasn’t I invited to pick out a few choice things for you to try on for me?”

Alex’s blush returned to her face and neck with a renewed vengeance before she answered, “Honestly I almost didn’t go with them at all. But once we got there they both told the girl working there that I just had to look as hot as possible for my horn-dog boyfriend who has no discernible taste to speak of and she picked out this. I think it hit the mark, don’t you?”

Jason swallowed hard and just nodded as he watched Alex pull his right hand to her chest and rested it at the top of the corset right in the middle of it. His eyes remained transfixed there until he felt the fingertips of his left hand brush the soft skin of her inner thigh. It wasn’t until that moment that he noticed that Alex had done nothing to hide herself from him. They had been working on her issues with nudity and intimacy together because (as Alex put it) she was finally in the right frame of mind to try to work on feeling more comfortable in her new body, but she still shied away from him most of the time when she perceived herself to be put on display for him, with or without clothes.

Not wanting to make her feel unduly self-conscious, Jason forced himself to focus and look her in the eye when he replied, “Yes, yes it most definitely did hit the mark… you look amazing.”

Alex let out a throaty laugh replying, “You already said that.”

Jason just shrugged off her retort. Alex then leaned in close and whispered against the shell of his ear, “I picked this one so that you could unwrap your present.”

Alex knew that it was a cheesy, clichéd line to use, but Jason always seemed to be turned on by talk like that so she tried to use it as much as possible. In turn Jason knew how uncomfortable Alex felt basically having to ‘prepare’ her pillow talk with him, so he didn’t allow the trickle of laughter that wanted to escape his lips. On top of that he was too aroused in that moment to care. His smoking hot girlfriend was basically offering herself up on a silver platter and he was never one to deny such a freely offered gift.

Before he could formulate a reply, Alex wrapped his fingers around the bottom lace of the bow and gently started to tug on it. It didn’t take much more prompting for him to comply with her silent direction to disrobe her himself. After the bow was completely unraveled, Jason enlisted the aid of his left hand to gently tug the lace through the loops of the corset to open it up completely at the front of her body. Once he had that accomplished, he took a moment just to admire Alex’s body as it was right then.

It didn’t take long for her to start to squirm uncomfortably, so Jason quickly swooped down to suckle one of her pebbled nipples between his lips. Alex let out a low moan in her throat at the sensation of him finally touching her flesh. Without interrupting him. Alex carefully shimmied one are out of her top so that she could throw it off the bed. Once she was sure that there was nothing between them that would impeded their contact, physically, at all Alex slowly lowered herself to the bed so that her head was once again resting on her pillow. Had she not placed her hands around Jason’s head he would have been forced to release her flesh from his embrace or he’d risk injuring one of her more tender body parts. As it was, he continued lapping at her excited flesh and willingly followed her into a horizontal position on the bed.

Once they were laying down on the mattress, Jason’s lips trailed a line of hot embraces from her right breast up her chest to her neck. Alex threw head back as far as she could on the pillow to bear even more of the flesh of her neck to him. He took advantage of what was being offered to him and traced warm kisses and soft bites as he zig-zagged his lips over her throat on his way up to her face.

Before their lips could touch Jason pushed himself up into a modified push-up so that he could look down at Alex. They stared into each other’s eyes for long enough that Alex started to squirm again. He then dipped his head down to capture her lips in a soft, reassuring kiss before he reverently said, “You are so beautiful Alex.”

She blushed and tried to shy away from him, but Jason wouldn’t allow it. He gently brushed back the hair she had let fall over her face to him from him as he stated, “You really are gorgeous Alex. I wish you would believe that.”

She continued to blush and didn’t reply to him. At least not verbally. Instead she wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him down for a deep, thorough, penetrating kiss. Jason immediately relented his weight to her whims and focused on nothing more than to match the intensity of her embraces.

Alex used this distraction to her advantage as she tightened her hold around his neck so that she could flip him over onto his back. Jason was so stunned by the move that he let his whole body go lax against the mattress and his arms to hang loosely at his side. Once she was convinced that he was somewhat settled in his place, Alex sat up on his mid-section to smile down at him triumphantly.

She leaned her body weight slightly onto her left hand so that she could run her right hand across his pants directly behind her with greater ease. When her fingertips finally found his rigid, throbbing length she squeezed it softly. Her gentle, teasing cause Jason to moan quietly and close his eyes so that he could more thoroughly savor her touch.

Watching her boyfriend enjoy her attempts to please him, whether it was with her food or with her body, always made Alex feel a little bit mischievous. That more than almost anything else remained the primary reason that Alex didn’t trust herself to spoil him at her restaurant. But in their bedroom she was starting to trust him, and more importantly herself, enough to not only let out her playful side, but to let herself enjoy indulging in it as well. That translated into Alex slipper her hand under the waistband of his pants so that she could gently scratch her nails down his smooth flesh to what she was seeking. At her destination she once again took hold of his engorged member and squeezed it just a touch too hard on purpose to get him to open his eyes and look at her. His eyes immediately snapped open in shock. She saw a hint of fear and concern in his eyes, so Alex started to stroke him, somewhat awkwardly given her current position, to ease some of the pain. He in turn tweaked one of her nipples causing her to stutter her movements before she found a smoother rhythm to caress him.

“When you look at me like that, _mon loup-garou_ , I believe that I’m beautiful.”

Jason groaned and then pushed on her back until he could lay claim to her lips once again. Alex continued to try to tease him like she had been doing, but it became increasingly more difficult to do with every inch that her torso got closer to his. After she finally relented her hold on him, Alex melted completely into Jason’s embrace. This was where Alex could easily lose herself completely, in Jason’s arms and to his kisses, and be happy to never return to her life outside of them.

“Mmm… Alex… I… you just…” Jason murmured as he kicked his feet softly. “If you help me out of my pants, I’d be more than happy to show you that it’s more than just my eyes that think you’re beautiful.”

Alex buried her face into his neck and let out a breathless laugh before she gently bit down on an already discolored tuft of flesh on his neck.

“You are truly terrible,” she replied with another nip at his skin. Alex then sat up again on his mid-section. He let his hands fall to her waist as she raked her nails up and down his chest. When her hands reached where her knees were resting by his stomach, she started to scoot her body down the length of his legs. Her hands continued to trail down his torso and didn’t stop once they reached the top of his pants. Instead her fingers wrapped themselves around the waistband and started to pull them off of his body. At first he didn’t move, which meant that she couldn’t disrobe him, so Alex lifted her face so that she could make eye contact with him. The instant their gazes met, Jason’s hips raised themselves off the bed. Alex smile appreciatively then she proceeded to remove the troublesome garment. Once they were pooled around his ankles she completely abandoned them to run her hands up his legs with her lips and tongue following closely behind.

“Alex… oh Alex… that’s nice.”

He could feel her smile against his flesh and gasped when she kissed his most sensitive flesh at the tip of his sex. Alex languidly ran her tongue along the length of his shaft, eliciting a series of soft moans and grunts from Jason. She smiled as she watched him writhe with pleasure and traded her tongue for her nimble fingers to caress his flesh.

“Does that mean that he thinks that I’m beautiful too?” Alex teased in a newly found seductive tone. “Because I think you look good enough to eat.”

Jason moaned as Alex took him into her mouth. Although they both enjoyed pleasuring each other and being pleasured orally, that wasn’t how Jason wanted to finish his night. Normally he would have had the strength and stamina to goa couple of rounds with Alex and not thought twice about it, but work at Guilty Pleasures had been grueling enough that he wasn’t certain that he’d be up for any more play time with Alex after he had reached his apex this time around.

Alex felt his hand fist a chunk of her hair, but his grasp quivered slightly and he didn’t seem to be able to maintain his hold. She could taste that he was close to being overly excited and what he didn’t know what that she too had different plans for how she wanted to end their evening as well.

Jason tried once again to fist Alex’s hair to try to gently pull her mouth off of that sensitive part of him, but she flicked her tongue over the side of his manhood in a way he hadn’t felt her do so before which once again caused his grip to falter. He felt her laugh around him and then she very slowly peeled her head up so that her tongue could bathe every inch of him as she moved her mouth off of him. She lingered at his tip and gave it one last suckle before she let him slip off her lips completely.

Jason ran his fingertips up Alex’s sides in an effort to coax her closer to him so that he could reclaim her mouth, but Alex wouldn’t comply. She gave him a self-satisfied smirk and then cupped him in her hands. Unsure if he could handle any more of her playful caresses, Jason moved his right hand to her face to hold her cheek.

Not caring that she may tease him relentlessly for the foreseeable future, Jason groaned then practically pleaded, “I don’t think I can hold out much longer Alex, please let me make love to you.”

Alex’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she smiled down at him, but to his surprise she did let go of him completely. She then started to crawl up his body. Despite them both being werewolves, Jason couldn’t help but think that Alex moved up his body with a cat-like grace. He savored the image in front of him because it was one of the rare moments where she appeared to have no trepidations or hesitation in her movements. Opal had told him that she had seen this type of confidence while working with Alex in the kitchen, but sightings such as this were still too rare in their personal lives. The fact that he was seeing it now was encouraging and he couldn’t wait to reward her for her positive progress in her own personal growth.

At the head of the bed, Alex draped her body over Jason’s body and laid claim to his lips once again. He placed his hands on either side of her head to pull her in closer to deepen their kiss, but Alex quickly pulled back. She kept herself blanketed over his torso with her right forearm pressed at the top of his chest. She didn’t want him to take her actions as a form of rejection, so she tried to keep as much as her body touching his as she could comfortably.

Running her fingers gently over his eyebrows, Alex smiled wistfully then said, “I was trying to give you a moment to let you calm down a bit before we really start to get to the good stuff… because I want you to last as long as possible and then once we’re both sweaty and satisfied, I want you to wrap your naked body around mind like a protective cocoon so that we can have the deepest sleep we’ve had in weeks.”

Jason closed his eyes tight to try to banish the salacious images Alex’s words were causing to run through his head but that didn’t seem to help. He groaned in protest and mild agony as he opened his eyes again. From the look on her face he could tell she knew exactly what kind of affect her words were having on him. Normally he would try to do or say something to tease her so that he could regain the upper-hand, but in all honesty he couldn’t muster the desire to do so right now. In this moment all he could think of was what Alex had just described, a long, languid, satisfying round of intense love making and then having the whole day to just hold her and cuddle with her in his arms.

“Mmm Alex you will get no protests from me. That sounds like a perfect plan.”

Alex responded with an exaggerated, wide-eyed shocked look with her mouth wide open.

“Did you just admit that I’m smarter than you?” She teased.

Jason let out a boisterous laugh and pulled Alex’s still open mouth to his for a kiss. While their tongues fought for dominance, Jason wrapped his arms around her body and rolled them over so that she was laying on her back underneath him. He refused to let her lean out of their kiss and greedily swallowed her squeak of surprise when he buried himself in her with one strong thrust.

His hips began to piston themselves back and forth and Jason relinquished his claim on her mouth so that he could reposition his upper body to give himself better leverage. Although she wanted nothing more than to let Jason take the lead on the pace with which they made love, Alex couldn’t help but to move as she tried to take him even deeper into her body. She had been completely honest with him when she had said that she had wanted him to last as long as possible, but now that didn’t matter to her. Now she just wanted him to bring her to her climax and if he could get her there more than once before her met his completion then that would suit her just fine.

She cried out in pure ecstasy for a third time before Jason thrust one final time and spilled himself inside of her. She had herd his excited grunts over her own bliss filled cries, but she reveled in the sounds of their labored breaths. It didn’t take long for the pace of the racing hearts or panting breaths to synchronize. They both let out a breathless laugh when they noticed it and then Jason kissed Alex almost chastely before he rolled off her body.

As soon as he was off her body, Alex rolled over onto her side and moved her back closer to him. Jason wanted to laugh at her eagerness, but he had neither the breath to allow him to do so nor the will to tease her in that moment. He well understood why Alex was seeking security and was even more relieved that he had become the primary person she would turn to when searching for an area of refuge. Everything that they were doing, opening her restaurant, attending counselling, all of it was to help them both get to a point where they recognized themselves two parts of a whole within their partnership and finally they were starting to feel like that was their truth. It was also the reason Jason couldn’t bring himself to belittle Alex’s actions right now. She needed her partner to play one of the roles designated to him and to do anything else would definitely hinder any chances for personal growth on either of their parts.

Once Alex’s back was facing him, Jason quickly wrapped his body around hers like a protective blanket. Alex sighed in relief when she felt his body press against hers, but she couldn’t quite let himself relax completely in his embrace.

Much to Jason’s surprise, Alex didn’t mold herself against him like he had expected her to do. Instead she remained somewhat rigid in his arms while her pulse continued to race. He wasn’t sure what was causing her anxiety, especially after the passionate experience they had just shared, so he tightened his hold on her body so that he could give her the peace of mind that she was physically safe with him before he tried to tackle the emotional demons that refused to let her be.

He kissed the side of her head before he settled himself more comfortably behind her. She let out another sigh that he thought was a relief but then he felt something that threatened to break his heart. On the back of his hands that were wrapped around her, he felt a few drops of moisture fall against his skin.

While Alex continued to silently cry, the tears escaping her eyes being the only evidence that betrayed her calm demeanor. Jason racked his brain trying to understand their origin. He would understand if they were tears of joy, but he had quickly learned that those were something that she would never hide. Even in public she was becoming less reluctant to let people see the emotions she felt when she was with them. So why would she hid them, albeit not all that well, from him now?

After a few minutes passed, realization hit Jason so hard that it almost felt like a physical jolt. Although his embrace was already almost uncomfortably tight, Jason squeezed Alex in his arms while he kissed the back of her head.

“We’re all going to keep you safe Alex,” he whispered against her ear. “Jean-Claude made them promise that his would just be a short visit. They’ll be here and gone before you know it. And if you still feel uncomfortable with being near them you’ll never have to see them again. Anita has practically sworn an oath to that.”

Alex shuddered in a breath at his comforting words. He thought that he had succeeded in settling her down but then her breath came out as a loud sob as she turned herself over and practically threw herself against his chest. The force with which she hit his body caused him to rock back, so he rolled onto his back so that he could hold her more comfortably. Alex shifted her body as well so that she could bury hers face into his neck while she continued to cry.

Jason ran his hands up and down her back, but he did nothing else to curb her tears. He knew she had been holding in a lot of her anxieties and had been refusing to confide in him so Jason was content to let her purge those feelings any way she felt fit.

Instead he just continued to rub soft circles against her back as he presses soft kisses against her head whispering, “It’s going to be okay Alex. Everything is going to be okay.”


	14. Chapter 14

Jason stepped up behind Alex where she was seated at her vanity putting on the finishing touches of her make up. She briefly made eye contact with him before swiftly moving her gaze back to her task at hand. In the short time that their eyes had met, Jason could see the raw emotion that had filled her golden eyes so he forced himself to remain silent to avoid being the reason that her tears would start to fall. Instead he picked up her brush and started running it through her hair to try to help to comfort her.

A soft smile started to spread across Alex’s face as she leaned back against Jason’s chest and let herself be engulfed in the comfort of his touch. He continued to brush her hair, even though it was at an awkward angle now, whispering, “It’s going to be over before you even know it.”

She sighed with her eyes closed then asked, “Can’t it just be over now?”

Jason chuckled softly and kissed the side of her head. “If you’d quit stalling and get your robe on so we can get dressed, then it would be over even sooner.”

“Jason,” Alex huffed before she sat up and turned to face him. He immediately braced himself for her to reprimand him, but instead she smirked then said, “Some of us have to take time to make ourselves presentable, unlike you who just had to roll out of bed to look gorgeous.”

Jason laughed and hugged Alex against him. He knew how nervous she was, but he appreciated that she was trying to poke fun at him right now. If she kept her mood light now (even if was totally fake) then maybe they would be able to get through the night unscathed. He knew that that was beyond wishful thinking, but he was trying to force himself to stay as positive as possible at the moment.

Alex took in a deep breath of Jason’s scent to ground herself. Although she wanted to just stay in their room and spend the rest of the night in his arms, Alex forced herself to push out of his embrace.

“So… Jean-Claude said that we’re supposed to meet him in his room to finish getting ready. Should I be scared?”

With a cheeky smile and a soft laugh, Jason pecked Alex’s lips (to keep from damaging her makeup) then replied, “Usually I would tease you about this for a little while, but I guess today I’ll be nice.”

Alex playfully pinched his side retorting, “You better… and not just today.”

Jason laughed again and forced himself to resist the urge to give her a deep, soul searching kiss. “Whenever there’s newcomers that visit, Jean-Claude likes to make sure that all of our wardrobe coordinates perfectly. Normally he just gives us something to wear and expects us to put it on, no questions asked.”

“But not today?” Alex asked sounding slightly apprehensive.

“Well in all honesty he might still end up doing that. But he’s been trying to give Richard more say in the things he does with us wolves, so my guess is that they’re still in negotiations on what all of us are going to wear.”

“Negotiations? Why doesn’t that give me a warm fuzzy feeling?”

“Don’t worry. Since Anita became his Human Servant he’s actually toned it down… a bit.”

“Jason! You said you were going to be nice! Quit teasing me.”

He smiled and tried to look bashful as he replied, “I swear I’m not trying to tease you Alex. It’s just the truth about our strange little crew. Sorry.”

He pulled her into his arms and crushed her against his body. Alex stifled a groan into his neck. He continued to whisper into her hair until he finally managed to make Alex huff out a laugh at one of his less than appropriate jokes.

Alex forced herself to push out of Jason’s arms once again to give him a weak smile as she said, “We should probably get to his room so that we can get this show on the road.”

Jason let out an involuntary laugh which caused Alex to scowl in confusion. He hooked her arm around his own and waited until they were in the hallway before he explained, “You’re soon going to find out how apropos the description ‘show’ really is.” Alex glared at him, but before she could utter a sound Jason quickly added, “That wasn’t me teasing you, I was just pointing out the weirdness that is our truth.”

Alex groaned and rested her head against his shoulder because she knew that he was truly just being honest but for some reason that didn’t seem to help. Normally knowing someone was being completely honest with her would have helped Alex to remain calm, but today it only seemed to rattle her already frayed nerves.

Once they got to Jean-Claude’s bedroom, had Alex not been holding onto Jason’s hand she would gladly have turned around and ran back to their room. The door to his room as open so even before they could see inside, they could feel the energy rolling off the Master of the City, their Lupa and their Ulfric. When they got to the open door they first saw Jean-Claude seated on his bed rubbing his temples as if he was trying to relieve a headache. Next they found Richard seated on one of the over-sized, white chairs by the faux fireplace with his arms crossed over his chest and a stern frown clouding the features of his handsome face.

Alex must have made some sort of involuntary movement to step away from the door because Jason’s grip on her hand tightened and he gently tugged on her arm. She offered no resistance as she slowly followed him into the room. Seeing the timid werewolf helped to ease some of the tension that Jean-Claude and Richard were feeling, but it appeared to have little to no effect on Anita. She was standing on the other side of Jean-Claude’s bed by a rack of clothing with her arms crossed and glaring at the back of Jean-Claude’s head.

As Jason and Alex walked deeper into the room, Jean-Claude smiled saying, “ _Ma gamine_ you’ve done a wonderful job with your hair and makeup tonight.”

Richard smiled as well and said, “He’s right, you look great Raya.”

She blushed slightly and nervously tucked her hair behind her ears replying, “Thanks. Opal’s given me a few more tis, so it’s getting easier to do it myself… but to be honest I like it better when Stephen or Opal does it for me.”

Jean-Claude stood up and took Alex’s hand from Jason. He then led her around the bed to Anita was standing. Anita still looked completely unhappy, but her frown did soften slightly when Alex gave her a tentative smile.

“Now let us find you something to wear that will compliment your beautiful hair and makeup.”

Before Alex could reply Anita said, “Whoa! Hold up there Jean-Claude. Richard and I haven’t approved any of these outfits. You promised that we’d have a say in what you are going to dress all of us up in.”

“And that you will _ma petite_ , but neither of you specified that I would have to do the same with our wolves.”

Miraculously Anita’s frown somehow deepened at his reply. Richard then stood up and stalked across the room. As he got closer to them Alex, Jason and Anita could feel his power pushing against them. Alex whimpered softly at the pain she felt from it. Jean-Claude quickly waved off the security guards by the door who looked like they were going to jump in to intervene.

“When we negotiated the terms Jean-Claude, it was implied that it included our wolves as well.”

Jean-Claude simply shrugged then replied, “I did not pick up on that subtle implication. _Désolé_. Since neither you nor _ma petite_ spoke up of any concerns for anyone other than yourselves, I was under the impression that I was allowed to choose _a gamine’s_ attire for this night.”

“That’s why you didn’t put up a fight with Richard and me,” Anita stated while raising an accusatory finger. “You planned this all along.”

Jean-Claude smiled coyly, but didn’t reply to her accusation. Instead he turned to face Alex. He placed a gentle hand on both of her cheeks and tried his best to calm the fearful look in her eyes with a reassuring smile on his face.

“Our visitors keeps insisting that our Alex belongs to their pack, so I wanted to put on a show for them to prove them wrong. I did not anticipate my clothing choices to cause such a rift when what we truly require during this night is a united front.”

“And we want that too Jean-Claude, but you can’t expect me to wear any of that to meet them for the first time,” Anita countered with a wave of her hand. She then stepped to Richard’s side and placed a gentle hand on his forearm and quietly said, “Richard you have to reign it in a bit. Your power is biting at my skin enough to hurt…”

Richard turned to look at her after her gentle words, so Anita tilted her head back to where Jean-Claude was standing with Alex. Alex still looked slightly panicked. Jean-Claude was now running his hands up and down her arms, while he spoke softly to her in French. Richard then moved his eyes to Jason. The other werewolf was hugging his arms around himself as if he were cold. Although he looked a lot calmer than Alex, Richard could tell that he too was incredibly uncomfortable with the amount of power radiating off his Ulfric.

“Sorry.” Richard apologized while he calmed himself down so much that no one in the room could feel the effect of his power. “Alex are you alright?”

She nodded her head a little too quickly as she answered, “Better no, but still a little freaked out.”

“Don’t be. I honestly didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Jean-Claude took a step back and away from Alex so that Richard could stand in front of her. He placed a hand on each of her shoulders and much like Jean-Claude had been doing, he gently ran his hands up and down her upper arms to try to comfort her. Alex smiled inwardly because she could tell that her Ulfric had misunderstood her. But at the same time she was grateful that he wasn’t so angry with their situation that he wouldn’t comfort her as a friend.

“I know you didn’t Richard,” she finally started to explain. “It’s just that I’m almost afraid to ask what Jean-Claude wants us to wear if it has you and Anita so upset.”

Richard huffed out a laugh and pulled her into a hug. She immediately wrapped her arms around his waist. It still amazed her every once in a while how differently anger manifested itself of a volatile temper, but most of the time she managed to hid it from everyone and let it simmer until it boiled over to the pint she couldn’t hold it in any longer. Now when she started to get upset, everyone around her could feel a pulse of her power and she was forced to deal with whatever was angering her well before things could get out of hand.

“I don’t know what you guys are complaining about, Alex is going to look smoking hot in this,” Jason commented as he held up a dark purple dress with a corset style bodice accented in black and dark, steel grey. “She always looks good enough to eat in a corset.”

Alex blushed but didn’t respond verbally to his teasing. She hoped that if she didn’t draw attention to his comment that everyone would gloss over it and not ask him to explain. As much as she hated to admit it, she still felt so insecure about her sex appeal sometimes that she couldn’t believe Jason actually wanted to be with her. She knew it was completely irrational and groundless because he never said or did anything to make her feel anything less than the most beautiful woman he had ever been with, but negative experiences from her past still lingered in the back of her mind.

“You might say that now Jason, but did you notice what material that dress is made of?” Anita asked as she took the dress out of his hands. “And how short it is?”

Jason shrugged and didn’t sound overly concerned when he answered, “Umm I noticed the material was pretty soft and as for the length… well Alex isn’t really all that tall so it never occurred to me that it might be considered too short.”

Anita shook her head at his nonchalance. She then held the dress up so that they could see one of Jean-Claude’s lamps shining through it. “See how sheer the fabric is? In the right light everyone will be able to see through it. Depending on what Alex does or more importantly doesn’t wear under it, everyone will be able to see ALL of her. She might as well go out there naked.”

Jason’s gaze grew hungry as a wide smile spread across his face. Without acknowledging Anita’s concerns he turned towards Jean-Claude to ask, “How many more dresses do you have like that one on the rack here?”

Jean-Claude issued one of his touchable laughs over Anita making an indignant sound of disgust. The vampire walked over to his _pomme de sang_ and squeezed his shoulder in gratitude.

“ _Merci ma pomme_ for all of your support.”

He then moved behind that werewolf. After he draped his arms over the shorter man’s shoulders, Jas leaned back so that his back was resting against Jean-Claude’s chest. He didn’t miss the flash of anger that appeared briefly in his Ulfric’s eyes at seeing him getting cozy with their Master of the City, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Alex was having a hard time dealing with her emotions about confronting the wolves from her attacker’s pack and he didn’t want to do anything to bring more conflict into her life right now.

“That’s such a typical guy answer,” Anita commented. “And no, Richard you aren’t typical, so I’m not going to lump you into their group.”

He nodded and took a couple of steps closer to her to further demonstrate with whom he was siding, “Thanks Anita.”

Anita gave him the barest hint of a smile before she turned her attention to Alex. The timid looking wolf was standing between the two groups as if she was on neutral ground. She swallowed nervously because of the way that everyone’s eyes were laser focused on her.

“Alex,” Anita started in a somewhat harsh sounding tone. “You really don’t want to wear this, do you?”

By Anita’s tone of voice Alex knew that her Lupa wasn’t so much asking her opinion as she was trying to get Alex to agree with her point of view. Alex moved just her eyes from Anita and the dress to Richard’s face before moving onto meet Jason’s eyes and then Jean-Claude’s gaze. The looks of anticipation on their four faces caused another wave of nervousness to wash over her because she could tell that both groups wanted her to side with them. Either way she was going to disappoint one of her ‘masters’, but she wasn’t sure who would hate her the least for not agreeing with them.

“Well…” she started slowly. “I… umm… I can’t really say without trying it on first. Maybe it won’t seem as sheer on and maybe the corset style of the top will help to cover everything that needs to be covered. Then again maybe I’ll look like crap in it and no one will want me to wear it in front of guests.”

Jean-Claude chuckled at Alex’s reply then said, “ _Ma gamine_ you can tell _ma petite_ your honest opinion of that dress. I will not hold it against you in any way.”

Alex swallowed hard and then looked back at Anita and the ‘offensive’ dress. In all honesty she really didn’t mind how sheer the fabric was and she absolutely adored the color of it. Because she had always been on the shorter side, she generally wore shorter skirts or dresses to try to make herself look talker. This dress appeared to be a bit shorter than what she normally wore, but as she had said earlier, until she tried it one she wasn’t sure if that would be an issue or not.

“Well I really love the color and even though the design isn’t something that I’d normally wear, I’ve recently learned that corsets are quite flattering on my body. The flare of the skirt is quite nice and umm…”

Richard felt his heart sink at Alex’s rambling explanation because he could tell that she really like the dress, but she didn’t really want to say that because of how negatively he and Anita had reacted to it.

“Raya,” he cut-in sympathetically. “Raya… if you like the dress, that’s okay. You don’t have to agree with Anita and I just to please us.”

Alex smiled and all of the tension in her body seemed to disappear. “Thank you Ulfric. The truth is that I kind of love this dress and I really don’t care that it might be see through. That just means that if my attacker is here then I can get some payback by showing him the body that he will never get to touch ever again.”

Anita and Richard stared at their wolf in stunned disbelief for a couple of seconds. Ever since the night that Alex had broken down into tears telling them about how she became a werewolf there had been no further discussions about that topic (at least not amongst themselves).

What they hadn’t anticipated is that Alex had been discussing that traumatic life event with her therapist who had helped her to put some of her fears and phobias into perspective. She also helped Alex to realize that she didn’t have to continue to be victimized by what she had lived through. Although that attack would always linger in her thoughts, she helped to transform how they affected Alex’s day to day life. The day that Alex finally allowed herself to realize that she wasn’t just a victim, she was a survivor, Alex’s outlook on life had changed. Yes, she still cringed at the thought of touching the monster that had nearly murdered her, but she no longer wanted to run away from him. Now she was ready to confront him and flaunt in front of him what he couldn’t have. Well that was what she wanted to do so long as she had her Lupa, Ulfric, Master of the City, boyfriend, friends and pack members with her as support.

Anita was the first of the two to recover. She smiled sympathetically at Alex and passes her the dress saying, “I hadn’t thought of it that way Alex. Here… why don’t you go try it on and make sure you really do like it?”

Alex took the dress and slightly curtseyed replying, “Thank you Lupa. And I’m sorry that I… umm…”

Anita squeezed one of Ale’s hands to silence her. “Don’t apologize for being honest. You’re entitled to your opinion even if it isn’t the same as mine or Richard’s, understood?”

“Absolutely,” Alex answered with a relieved smile before she turned and hurried into the bathroom to put on her new dress.

Anita then turned to Jean-Claude and glared at him, but when she spoke there was absolutely no heat in her voice. “Fine! I’ll wear the stupid corset, but there’s no way in hell I’m wearing anything as sheer as that!” She pointed towards the closed bathroom door to emphasize her point.

“Anita!” Richard called out in shock.

The two of them had finally been united on the topic of their wardrobe tonight and he had been convinced that she wasn’t going to waver. To hear her now do a near complete reversal of her previous arguments seemed too incredible to believe.

Before Richard could say anything else, Anita put her hand up to silence him and explained, “You keep telling me this isn’t about us, this is about Alex and us helping her get some closure. If it were up to me we’d send Griff and his crew back to Seattle on the next available flight, but then they’d keep harassing us and claiming her as their own. You know I can’t allow that, she’s ours and we have to do everything in our power to prove that to them… even if that means I have to dress up in one of the world’s most uncomfortable pieces of clothing in the world ever invented.”

Richard opened his mouth then closed it straight away. After a couple of deep breaths he closed his eyes tight and then said, “You’re right. Okay…” He opened his eyes and looked at Jean-Claude. “Fine… fine… you can dress me up and make me look like a stupid pirate.”

Jean-Claude smiled replying, “ _Mon ami_ , don’t sound so blue, I would never do anything to make you look stupid. Especially not when we have special guests visiting us.”

“Sure you wouldn’t.”

Jean-Claude smirked but his retort remained unstated because they all heard the sound of a loud sniffle coming from the direction of the bathroom. All four of them turned their attention to that exact direction. There they found Alex with her hand over her mouth trying to stifle the sounds she was making. Jason immediately ran to her side and held both of her cheeks to force her to look at him and him only Richard slowly made his way to the two younger werewolves while only keeping his eyes on Alex.

“Alex… Alex… please look at me Alex,” Jason implored softly. “It’s okay, we’re going to get you through this. I promise we will.”

Alex started to shake her head while it was still being held in Jason’s soft grasp. “No it’s just…” She turned her eyes up to meet Richard’s worried gaze where he was now standing behind Jason. “I didn’t know that’s how you and our Lupa felt. Thank you… thank you so much for everything, Richard… Jean-Claude… all of you. Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank us Raya. As your Ulfric and your Lupa, being there for you is part of our jobs.”

“I know, but still…”

“Shh… Alex please take a really deep breath so you can calm down a bit or you’re going to ruin all of the hard work you did on your makeup,” Jason tried again while gently running his fingers under her eyes.

Alex smiled as a single tear escaped her eye. “And we don’t want that to happen because then we’ll just delay everything even longer than we have to,” she whispered to Jason.

“Exactly,” he answered through his own whisper before he kissed her lips.

Jason then rested his forehead against Alex’s for a couple of breaths. Since Jason seemed to have the potential problem well in hand, Richard backed away and just watched them for a few more minutes. When nothing got worse he then turned to look at Jean-Claude and Anita, who were now standing beside each other as well as another rack of clothing that appeared in the room as if from nowhere, and share a sad smile with Anita. He had been trying hard to accept his role as Jean-Claude’s Animal to Call and to better play his part in their Triumvirate of Power with Anita, but at times like this he still felt like a complete outsider.

Earlier in the night he actually was starting to feel like a teammate with Anita. That gave him hope that one day that they might be able to rekindle some of the camaraderie and the partnership that they had once shared. Having Alex around had made it easier for him to feel a part of their group because she was so quick to accept him as an ally at all times. While they were in Tennessee they had become friends and once they had been reacquainted in St. Louis she hadn’t acted any differently. He was a confidant she felt comfortable with and she didn’t care who knew or saw that or knew it. But at the same time she now had Jason ending to her emotional well-being, so Richard started to silently question his place in her life every time he saw them together.

When he turned back to look at Anita and Jean-Claude, Anita must have noticed the change in his demeanor because her facial expression softened considerably. She then walked over to him and looped her left arm around his right arm. “Jean-Claude and I were thinking that it might be best if the two of us, you and me that is, are all matchy matchy. What do you think?’ She asked as she led him back to where she had been standing with Jean-Claude previously.

“Sure,” Richard answered somewhat distractedly.

Anita hugged his arm which seemed to help Richard to focus. He then shook his head and smile while looking at Jason helping Alex to touch up her make up as he said, “I think that’s a great idea Anita. But I’ll do you one better. I think our whole pack should be dressed alike so that we present a united front to Griff and his pack.”

Jean-Claude’s lips drew back into a content smile as he said, “I’m very happy to hear you both feel that way _mon ami_. I’ve taken the liberty of having the same outfits delivered to where your Skoll, Hati, Geri, Freki and other members are dressing, all you and _ma petite_ have left to do is to choose a color for all of you to wear.”

Anita and Richard shared a quick look and then answered at the same time, “Black.”

For a brief moment Jean-Claude let his shock at their quick reply register on his face. One he had regained control of his expression, he smiled softly then said, “But of course, I should have guessed that would be your preference.”

Anita smiled smugly as she walked over to the vampire’s side. “You know what they say Jean-Claude, the best defense is a strong offense and to do that you must be aggressive.”

                        *************************************************

Once everyone was dressed, Jean-Claude and Asher gave them each another once over to make sure that not even a single hair was out of place. Jean-Claude had decided that the initial meeting would be done at the Circus of the Damned in the salon downstairs. It was out of the norm for wolf packs to formally meet each other anywhere but their Lupanar, but the circumstances surrounding this meeting had been so irregular for so many reasons that he felt that it was fitting. First and foremost he and Theodore, the Master of the City from Seattle, had made all of the arrangements so he had agreed that he should be involved during the initial meet and greet. If things went well tonight then further arrangements to have a ‘do over’ at their Lupanar would be finalized between Richard and Griff.

The second difference for a normal pack greeting was that the entire pack would not be involved tonight. Instead just the leaders and members that held a position of prestige would be in attendance this night. Richard had tried to use that as an excuse to try to exclude Jason, but Alex had been quick to point out that as her boyfriend Jason help a very prominent place in her life. She then added less heatedly that she needed Jason there as emotional support in order to get through everything that was going to happen, so Richard had backed off because he didn’t want to make the night’s events any harder on Alex than the already predicted it was going to be.

Once everyone was dressed and ready to head out to the salon, Jean-Claude and Asher did a final inspection of everyone’s hair, make-up and clothing. Alex had to stifle a giggle that bubbled up in her chest because she could now see what Richard had meant when he had said that Jean-Claude could dress him up to look like a ‘stupid pirate’ because their clothes definitely did look like something the cast of the Pirates of the Caribbean would have worn.

Jason saw Alex biting her lip and walked over to her to quietly say, “It’s going to be alright. Don’t forget what we talked about, you don’t always have to be the submissive one.”

She smiled then gently rubbed her nose against his (she would have given his a kiss but she was worried that she would completely mess up her make-up which would delay everything even further) then whispered back, “I haven’t forgotten.” She gave him another smile, almost as if she was reassuring him and not the other way around. She turned back towards her Ulfric and Lupa to ask, “Since I haven’t really done this before, I really don’t want to screw things up and cause a war or something between our packs; so who am I not supposed to try to be more dominant with? I mean I know I have to be submissive to their Ulfric, but is there anyone else that I have to make sure that I’m careful with?”

Richard took a step forward so that he could take her hand and lead her over to Jean-Claude’s bed. He sat down on it so that they were closer to being at eye level while they talked and then explained, “Since you are so new to the pack and don’t hold a title you do have to be very careful about exerting any kind of dominance. I agree with Jason that you shouldn’t be completely submissive because Griff is the one that has insisted on this meeting so that means that you are important to him on some level which we should capitalize on.” He caught the shocked look on Anita’s face so he turned his attention towards her and very innocently asked, “What? What’d I do wrong now?”

Anita smiled then approached the two of them replying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like you’ve done something wrong. It’s just that I didn’t know that you had put so much thought into this meeting.”

“Well it’s Pack business and you know that I’m always serious about Pack business.”

“That is very true. You are also becoming more and more aware and proficient in the politics of our groups as well _mon ami_ ,” Jean-Claude added from where he was standing with Asher on the other side of the room.

Anita smiled gratefully at Jean-Claude and then turned back towards Richard and Alex. “What he said. And to add to everything Richard was saying Alex, for now it might be best if you let all of Griff’s pack members here today to take the dominant role because that’s what they are considered to be within the Rainwater Clan.”

“Okay?” “Anita?” Alex and Richard questioned sounding thoroughly confused.

“I know we’ve all been saying that we don’t want to let Griff think that he can push us around, especially on our own turf, but he only has high ranking wolves with him today. Plus you’ve already pointed out that Alex holds no title within the Thronnos Rokke Clan, so for her to claim herself dominant is only asking for problems.” Anita stopped there and looked around the room before quietly adding, “At least that’s my humblest of opinions.”

That succeeded in her receiving a couple of soft chuckles from more than one of the males in the room. Richard grinned saying to the young wolf in front of him, “She makes a really good point Alex. But after today and IF we agree to invited them to our Lupanar, we can talk about all of this again and we’ll make a list of the wolves you can challenge to be submissive to you.”

“But with all of that being said,” Anita interjected before Alex could reply. “Just because you are acknowledging that they hold a place of dominance within their own pack, that doesn’t mean that you have to be completely and utterly submissive to them either.”

Alex’s eyebrows knitted themselves into a confused scowl as she replied, “I was following you right up until that very last part Lupa. They are dominant, but I’m not submissive? Did I get that right?”

“Not ENTIRELY submissive,” Anita corrected. She could tell that Alex still wasn’t understanding what she meant so she decided to try a different tactic. “Alright maybe I’m not explaining myself properly. How about a demonstration? Do you think that that would help?”

Alex shrugged hoping that she hadn’t angered her Lupa with her confusion. Jason could tell that his girlfriend was trying to retreat into herself, so he jumped in saying, “I think a demonstration would definitely help me since I’m pretty sure that I’m more confused than Alex is on this one.”

Alex gave him a grateful smile then turned towards Anita to quietly reply, “I would appreciate it very much as well. Thank you Lupa.”

Anita nodded then took a couple of steps towards Alex. The younger wolf instinctively started to move away from the other woman, but she forced herself to stand her ground as she nearly whispered, “You’re going to demonstrate on me?”

“That was my plan,” Anita replied with her own confused scowl forming on her brows. “I just figured it would make more sense if it was you and I, Alex; but if you’re not comfortable with it, I can always show you with someone else.”

“No, no… that’s alright,” Alex quickly answered. “I’m sorry about… well before… I’m just… I’m feeling a little jumpy. I’m sorry. Please Lupa, please continue with your demonstration. Where do you want me to stand?”

Although Anita wanted to remind Alex, yet again, that she didn’t have to use her title, she bit her tongue and held in that reprimand. None of them were feeling particularly comfortable with having Griff and his pack here at the Circus of the Damned, so she understood Alex’s unease. Plus Jason had explained to her and Richard that he noticed that Alex would revert to using their titles instead of their names whenever she was feeling like she needed reassurance that she was safe with and protected by any of the leaders that had offered to do just that when she first came into town. That the led to another discussion between Anita and Richard and then eventually Jean-Claude where the leaders had realized that although they noticed this trend, they had not noticed the pattern of cause and effect that Jason had pointed out to them. That night the three of them had decided that they would not broach the subject with Alex until after Griff and company left town because they didn’t want to stress the young wolf out any more than she already was, but after they were gone the three of them knew they had to have a sit down with Alex. They knew that they needed to make it clear to her, once and for all, that she was an integral member of their pack and that no one in St. Louis was going to let her be forced to leave without one hell of a fight.

“Just stay right where you are Alex. Right now you are going to play the role of the dominant wolf. As such you would expect the submissive, in this case me, to approach you and do most of the work.”

“Okay, but I’m not dominant----”

“For this exercise you are,” Anita interrupted with a gentle yet forceful tone to keep Alex from arguing with her any further. “Alright, I know you are going to have questions, but try to keep your mind as blank as possible and just focus on what you feel. When I’m done, if you’re not sure about something you felt, I will try my best to explain everything to you, okay?”

Alex nodded then whispered out an ‘okay’ that could barely be heard by anyone in the room.

Anita tried to give Alex a reassuring smile before she performed the submissive greeting that they all knew so well, but she wasn’t sure if she succeeded in easing the other woman’s fears. While their noses were nearly touching, Anita let her power pulse ever so slightly and pushed it softly against Alex’s now dormant magic. Because she didn’t want to play the role of the dominant wolf right now, she didn’t make her press of power forceful, but she almost worried that it had been too light to be felt. As she moved away from Alex she gave another gentle push of power that she could tell had been felt because she heard Alex suck in a sharp breath.

Once she was standing back in her spot, Anita made direct eye contact with Alex once again. At first Alex looked a little bit dazed, but as her vision cleared she smiled then whispered, “Wow.”

“And you understand what I did there?” Anita asked with a relieved smile on her face.

Alex smiled brightly then answered, “I think so. Although you were giving the submissive greeting, you let a little bit of your power touch mine to let me know that I shouldn’t consider you a total push over.”

“That’s it exactly Alex. Do you think that you have enough control now to be able to do it?”

“I… I… I think I do, but… could I maybe practice a couple of times to make sure?”

“Of course, I was actually going to suggest just that. Here why don’t you start with me?” Anita offered as she stood up a bit taller in her spot.

Alex approached her somewhat timidly and then she attempted to duplicate what Anita had done with her. She kept her eyes squeezed closed tightly to try to help her to concentrate. When she was done she kept them closed because she was worried that she hadn’t done it right.

“That was perfect,” Anita quietly praised. She then took Alex’s hand in hers and asked, “Why don’t you try it with Richard next?”

Alex did just that. After Richard she did the same thing with Micah. Both of the male lycanthropes agreed that she hadn’t pressed enough power against theirs to be considered a challenge, but at the same time they could feel that her magic was strong. Once they agreed that Alex was ready to try it on their visitors, they went to touch up her make up, but Jean-Claude stopped them there. He requested that he feel it for himself since he would be helping with damage control should anything go wrong. Richard wanted to object, but in the interest of getting to the meeting with the Rainwater Clan before daylight found them he forced himself to remain silent.

Once Alex passed the test with Jean-Claude they all did their final touch ups on their appearance before heading out as a group towards the Salon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
